Failure to translate research findings into policy and practice prevents research from achieving maximum public health benefit. Despite substantial investment in clinical research in HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the exploitation and use of research results beyond academia is often limited.

Limited opportunities for engagement between researchers and policy-makers, lack of experience in exploiting research results beyond academia, and structural and cultural differences between research and policy-making are some of the barriers to an efficient uptake of research results.

Health managers and policy-makers can also face challenges in dealing with a large volume of research evidence and difficulties in adapting evidence from systematic reviews to make it locally relevant.

This Research into Policy Toolkit guides researchers through the process of taking research findings into policy: describing the overall key steps and exploring the main themes through the lens of key frameworks.

We have also collated an extensive collection of resources linked to taking research findings into policy which can be searched and filtered depending on their type. Are you looking for a guide, a framework or model, or want to watch a few short videos? Or maybe you are interested in learning materials? Click on 'Resources' to explore.

This toolkit is continually being worked on and this version is being piloted to allow The EDCTP Knowledge Hub community to contribute to its development. If you would like to suggest resources or give constructive feedback, please fill out the short questionnaire available by selecting the speech bubble button above.

Explore the main themes of taking research findings into policy or navigate the extensive collection of open-access resources by selecting a button below

Steps in the Research to Policy process

 
Evidence generation & gathering, advocacy and collaboration
Monitoring &
Evaluation
Implementation

All Phases

Resources