Last week’s workshop to discuss how improved communication can help maximize the impact of agricultural research in Africa brought together some 50 participants from across the continent.

What were some of the topics covered? Read five blog stories:

Enhancing the impact of research

Communication the key to agricultural research with impact

Agricultural research communication challenges in Africa

Innovation, information, communication – maximising research impact

CGIAR knowledge sharing in research project aims to enhance research impact

We also interviewed many of the participants, catching their views in a series of short videos:

• Innovation works – communication can help research lead to actions
• Innovation works – increasing the probability that research leads to actions
• Knowledge sharing in research – bridging individuals essential to sustain impact
• Knowledge sharing in research – ways to achieve research objectives more effectively
• Knowledge sharing in research – not an add-on!
• Communication can improve quality at every stage of the research cycle
• Research communicators need to understand their audiences
• The innovation systems approach in agriculture
• How an IFPRI scientist disseminates his research
• Entrepreneurial services need to reinforce meaningful links between knowledge users and producers
• Communication the key to research utilization
• Communication a prerequisite for policy impact
• Communication the only way to maximise research impact
• Communicating research on insects at ICIPE, Africa
• Researchers need to see the benefits of communication
• Getting agricultural research off the shelf
• Maximising the impact of research on policy or practice
• Organizing research to impact on policy or practice
• IFPRI research communication excellence recognized

Also, during the Addis Ababa workshop, Louise Clark, Knowledge Transfer manager at the DFID-funded Research Into Use Programme launched a new blog with the name: RIU: An Innovation System Story!

The Addis Ababa workshop was organized with support from DFID by the Global Development Network (GDN) in partnership with the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), the World Bank Institute (WBI), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and from the Information and Communications Technology – Knowledge Management (ICT-KM) program of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).

Photos from the workshop
Video interviews at the workshop
More stories on Euforic blog / on IAALD blog

The April 2008 DFID research strategy promised to pay attention to the uptake of research findings.

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By Peter Ballantyne

The new research strategy More on the consultation process View outputs of DFID-funded research