Making the Most of Your Research – A Toolkit

• What hypothesis are you testing? Or what gaps in understanding need addressing?
• You will have a clear understanding of this – but can you communicate it clearly and concisely to a non-specialist audience? If you had to, could you communicate it in no more than ten words, or fifteen seconds?
• Does your goal pass the “so what” test?
• How might your research benefit the scientific community and those beyond academia?
• Are you asking the right questions? If your research has a direct effect on a certain sector, their knowledge and experience can help you refine and frame your questions so they are relevant.
• Are there colleagues you could be speaking to?

• Define success – what do you hope to achieve and how will you know you’ve succeeded? 
• Is your plan to reach the widest possible audience or to make contact with specific groups?
• Is your research open access and accessible?
• What do you need to achieve your objectives? Do you need to develop any skills? Do you require any training?

• Are you aware of who your stakeholders, beneficiaries and research users might be?
• How will you communicate with them?
• Do any of your audiences know who you are? Do you have a public profile? Is it easy for people to find you? Is your name next to the claims you make? 

For support building your profile contact the Communications Team, which promotes the University’s work and expertise to the world. It publicises stories from schools and directorates, from ground-breaking research initiatives to the achievements of staff and students. It is the point of contact for journalists in the regional, national, international and specialist media.

• Make your research outputs, underlying research data, methodology and any software or code that you have produced in the process of carrying out your research open access.
• This means that they are freely available to be viewed and downloaded by anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world, without barriers or requiring payment.

Find support at Open Research. 

Dissemination in academia typically involves sharing research findings with a fairly niche audience. 

Examples of dissemination include:

• publishing in journals
• sending reports to funders
• attending conferences 
• sending press releases
• giving media interviews
• writing articles 
• posting about your findings on social media
• running public engagement events

Dissemination is a good way to share information but you must know who your key audiences are and how they can make use of your findings. 

To target audiences through dissemination you must segment them, understand each audience’s particular characteristics and refine the most appropriate and relevant messaging to appeal to them. You can do this by creating clear audience profiles. Download and complete our ‘Audience profile worksheet’ to help you understand different audiences and what they care most about.

You can then frame your research findings to communicate effectively with specific audiences. For example, people regard benefits (gains) and risks (losses) subjectively, depending on their own psychological, emotional, moral or political frameworks. An effective dissemination strategy will appeal to an audience in a way in which the benefits (e.g., lives saved by a new policy) outweigh the risks (e.g., economic or opportunity costs).

Now consider messaging channels and timing for engaging with your audience.

Traditional news media

Creating a press release makes you consider the who, what, where, when and why of your research. We’re all fascinated by our own work, but what (about your findings) is new, unusual, surprising, reassuring, or demonstrates change?

An effective press release starts with the story rather than burying it behind context. It can be published on your department’s news feed and sent to traditional and new media. But it must be tailored to each.

Researchers use press releases in many ways including, to share findings dispassionately, to analyse what results might mean or to raise awareness that research has been completed. Be aware of inter/national campaigns or events relevant to your work because timing your release before, during or just after these can help you gain traction.

Your press release should appeal to the media you are targeting – what is newsworthy for a sector-specific journal will differ from what will appeal to a newspaper and its readers.

Our Communications Team can help you put together a press release or prepare for an interview. 

Social media

Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have wide and varied audiences which use them for amusement, entertainment, to stay informed and to network. They can be powerful platforms or huge timewasters. It can be useful to create a personal profile where stakeholders can learn more about you and contact you directly.

Whether and how you use social media to support your research may depend on how much you already use it, your target audiences and their preferences.

Talk with other researchers and the Communications Team about pros and cons, good practice and any training and support we can offer you.

Engagement is different to dissemination – by engaging you seek to establish two-way communication and actively make space for the voices of your non-academic/expert audiences.

Engagement is an active process requiring knowledge of a particular audience and a willingness to build relationships with those who have an interest or stake in your research.

Examples of engagement include:

• public engagement
• public and patient involvement (PPI)
• outreach
• widening participation
• collaborating on research or a brief with community partners
• public talks
• visiting schools or colleges
• consulting with patient groups

There are several benefits of engagement:

• For researchers - Engaging with audiences outside academia allows you to include more perspectives in the dialogue. You may find it enlightening, challenging, compelling and informative.
• For the research process - Public engagement can lead to better quality research and ensure research is relevant, accessible and trusted.
• For students and postdocs - Targeted dissemination and engagement develop your communication skills. Non-academic engagement helps others to understand the research process, our responsibility as researchers and where research can make a difference. It offers you networking and professional development opportunities too.

The key difference between engagement and dissemination is that you are prepared to listen, whether through active listening or evaluation of engagement activities such as workshops or events.

Evaluation is a valuable tool that enables you to learn from your experiences and assess the impact of your work.

Evaluation is a “process of collecting evidence and reflection that will help you understand the dynamics and effect of your work, and help inform future projects or approaches.” (National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, NCCPE)

It is best to develop your evaluation plan at the beginning of a project, even if you modify it later. This will help you think through what you are trying to achieve and ensure you collect relevant data from your project as you go. These tools will help:

• NCCPE’s Evaluating public engagement website and resources
• AHRC’s Guide to self-evaluation [this pdf needs to be uploaded on Aberdeen server]
• ESRC’s Public engagement toolkit [this pdf needs to be uploaded on Aberdeen server]

Additional tools for specific research areas:

• AHRC’s Partnership working in the Arts and Humanities guide [pdf needs upload on server]
• EPSRC’s translation toolkit [pdf needs uploading on server]

Co-designing research

Co-design in research involves participatory approaches to designing research proposals and the research process itself. This goes beyond consultation to reach equal collaboration between groups or communities affected by or attempting to resolve a particular challenge.

A key tenet of co-design is that users, as ‘experts’ of their own experience, become central to the design process. Co-design intentionally involves users and their input to inform or design solutions.

Co-producing research

Co-production involves including people who are not researchers but who have a stake in the project, in a shared learning process. This can enhance the quality of your research and help it to bring about positive change.

Co-production can include working with participants in a project, patients, carers, service users as well as people from wider society, such as policymakers, community groups, third-sector organisations and businesses.

Co-production can take place throughout a project. It may encompass identifying research questions, design and priority setting, governance, co-delivery of research activities, communication of key findings and involvement in knowledge exchange.

Read the UKRI’s co-production in research pages for more valuable insights.

Co-production may raise ethical considerations since it can blur the lines between researcher and participant(s) or other stakeholders. All partners should consider such issues in advance and establish clear lines of responsibility and accountability.

Organisational culture and differences

It is a good idea for each partner to discuss their motivations and expectations around the project. Consider how you intend to manage any tensions between competing accountabilities at the outset.

Partners in co-production may come from a wide variety of research organisations, industries, charities, think tanks, policymaking bodies, participant groups and sections of the general public, and from a wide range of countries.

Partners may have their own perspectives regarding ethical issues around joint research. Any differences may be due to organisational culture, training, access to research resources and participant populations. Be aware and thoughtful.

It is worth seeking to understand partners’ and public attitudes towards the project and any perceptions about conflicts of interest.

Ongoing monitoring

Partners should agree, plan and implement a process of ethical reflection and monitoring while the research is taking place. Share the responsibility to do this. It will ensure any ethical issues are promptly reported to all organisations involved and appropriate advice is sought from a research ethics committee.

It can be helpful to include activities that encourage reflection and negotiation at key points. Learning events with research and innovation partners can be useful.

Equitable partnerships

Researchers and innovators should be sensitive to actual or perceived differences in income, status or power. They should follow principles of equitable partnerships to address inherent power imbalances when working with partners, particularly public and community partners where imbalances may be more prominent.

Partnerships must be transparent and based on mutual respect. They should hold a clearly articulated understanding of the equitable distribution of resources, responsibilities, efforts and benefits. Partnerships should recognise different inputs, interests and desired outcomes and ensure the ethical sharing and use of data.

Ethics review

Partners should agree a streamlined ethics review process. For example, they may choose to use the research ethics committee of the organisation where the principal investigator is based.

Depending on the type of research, the ethics review should, as a minimum, satisfy the requirements of either of the frameworks below:

• Framework on Research Ethics review guidance (UKRI) 
• Policy Framework for Health and Social Care Research (NHS)

Where research is to be conducted outside the UK or involves international partners, researchers must establish whether an ethics review is required by non-UK ethics committees.

Visit the University’s Research Governance resource page for advice on confidentiality, data protection or ethics.

Knowledge exchange (KE) is the “enabling of two-way exchange between researchers and research users to exchange ideas, research evidence, experiences and skills” (ESRC). KE activities include collaborative or contract research, consultancy services, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), training, commercialisation of research through start up and spin-out companies.

The University’s Research and Innovation department can support you with specialist advice around knowledge exchange, business development, consultancy, intellectual property opportunities, finance, policy and strategy.

Examples of successful collaborations and approaches to engagement:

• School of Law: Collaborating with international partners to protect and manage marine genetic resources: Protecting marine biodiversity by understanding intellectual property rights
• School of Psychology: Undertaking KE with farmers to improve safety in the farming industry: Sowing the seeds of safety with non-technical skills
• Business School: Engaging with policymakers and charity organisations to address equality gaps in eye care access in Scotland. Tackling Scotland’s inequality in visual care for National Eye Health Week

Find more details on how to engage with your stakeholders in section 2.1.3 How to engage with stakeholders and beneficiaries

Stakeholders are organisations, groups or individuals who are affected by or can affect a decision, action or issue related to your research.

Beneficiaries are groups or individuals, either at a local, national, or global scale, who are ultimately affected, influenced, or experience an improvement from the research with or without direct contact.

Identify your stakeholders and beneficiaries by considering:

• Whether there are individuals, groups or organisations that might have a common goal or mutual interest. A good practice approach is to map out potential stakeholders to help organise your approach (e.g. download our ‘Audience profile worksheet’ Stakeholder planning worksheet.pdf or see Nesta’s ‘target group tool’)
• Whether you can identify specific groups you would like to work with from the broad categories in the stakeholder map.

Ask yourself:

• Why would your research be important to each group?
• How will you reach a particular group?
• (How) Do the different groups interact?
• Who else influences the different groups?

It isn't always effective or possible to interact with all the identified stakeholders. Determine who will be best to interact with by considering:

• How likely the groups identified are to be affected by the research.
• How accessible each group is to you.
• How aware of your research the different groups are likely to be.
• The capacity they have to use or take action on the basis of your research.
• The impact your research might have on each group (positive/negative).

Make a considered judgement about the value and priority of targeting different stakeholders. Consider the potential risks and impacts of doing so before planning stakeholder and beneficiary engagement activities.

Once you have identified and prioritised the stakeholders you want to engage with, tailor your activities and communication strategies. Select engagement activities which suit your research and each stakeholder's needs.

When planning engagement activities consider:

• What activities are you already conducting?
• Is there an intermediary, such as a knowledge exchange professional, external expert or artist you should work with?
• Do you need a communication strategy to raise awareness of your research to new groups or the public? Remember: work through ‘audience profile > message > channel > timing’ in that order.
• What is involved in implementing your activity?
• Can you use any events or platforms run by the University?
• Which external engagement events or projects should you participate in to help achieve your impact and create your knowledge network?

Creating and nurturing engagement can take time. You should decide whether you or a member of your team is best placed to oversee these activities.

Potential risks to manage during stakeholder engagement include:

• Stakeholder concerns over confidentiality
• Lack of capacity to engage with the research or implement the findings
• The research may challenge stakeholder views, affecting participation
• Stakeholders and beneficiaries cannot use research communication material
• The researcher and stakeholder want to ask different questions
• Churn: a key contact leaves, affecting the relationship with stakeholder
• The stakeholder agenda is already developed without considering research evidence
• The stakeholder timeframe differs from your project timeframe

It is useful to consider how to manage expectations and when to engage with the groups identified. Early engagement with stakeholders is often beneficial to establish their needs, identify how best to engage them with the research, build flexibility into engagement plans and manage concerns.

Questions to consider:

• Will you engage at the beginning, during or at the end of the project?
• Will stakeholders’ requirements shape the research project?
• Will you keep stakeholders updated throughout the project and if so, how?
• How will you keep in touch after the project is completed?

These tools can help you plan the budget for engagement activities:

• PE costings guide July 2020.pdf (bristol.ac.uk)
• 6CostingGuidance.pdf (cam.ac.uk)
• How-do-I-fund-my-public-engagement-activity.pdf (imperial.ac.uk)
• Involvement Cost Calculator – INVOLVE (CRUK costing tool for PPI)

If you want support for planning public involvement, the Public Engagement with Research Team is available to help you come up with ideas and provide advice for your engagement activities. You can contact them here.

The Public Affairs Team seeks and seizes opportunities to develop the University's strategic role and reputation regionally, nationally, and globally. At a local level, the team seeks to establish the institution’s place in the community. The team can help you to promote your work to political audiences to maximise the impact of your research and expertise while providing a sound evidence base for policymaking.

Useful resources:

• Policy guide for academics in Scotland: How to get started - SPRE
• How to write a policy briefing: https://post.parliament.uk/how-to-write-a-policy-briefing/ 
• Contribute to a POSTnote (research briefing) for UK Parliament 

Contact the Impact & Knowledge Exchange Team if you are interested in establishing research collaborations or strategic partnerships with the industry.

The National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement offers excellent guides on how to organise your own public engagement activities. Its guidance and best practice covers many areas such as understanding target audiences, partnership working, funding and how to successfully evaluate your projects.  

The ESRC has also produced a very useful toolkit for social science researchers.  

Contact the Impact Team to discuss getting started with knowledge exchange or public engagement.

The University’s Research and Innovation department can also support you with specialist advice around knowledge exchange, training, commercialisation, business development, consultancy, intellectual property opportunities, finance, policy and strategy.

Talk with the Stakeholder Engagement Team for help to manage your relationships with stakeholders.