Funders of research are increasingly concerned with the communication and uptake of research. This impetus puts pressure on researchers and Research Communication professionals to develop communications strategies and activities to ensure that findings are communicated effectively and timeously. A number of guidelines for developing Research Communication strategies exist, including advice from Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Department for International Development (DFID) and the Developing Evaluation and Communication Capacity in Information Systems project (DECI-2). Common to many of these communications strategies and plans is audience and stakeholder engagement activities.
This poster presentation shares some of the experiences and methods from the Research on Open Educational Resources of Development Project (ROER4D) in developing a Research Communication strategy, and in particular, activities related to stakeholder engagement. Drawing on the resources and insights from Research Communication guidelines and practical experience gained through the project, it is the contention of this presentation that audience analysis and stakeholder engagement needs to continue throughout the research process from the proposal stage to the release of findings and beyond. This is especially important for research that endeavours to adopt an Open Research approach, or that is working in an “Open” ethos. The poster will present a communications approach that takes an iterative approach to identifying audiences, establishing connections with stakeholders, and engaging in participatory open communication practices mapped to stages of the research process. It also indicates the potential division of roles of the researcher and communications professionals in conducting communications activities, which is often missing from guidelines for Research Communication. While it presents an example of how a particular large network-level research project has evolved a communications strategy, it is hoped it will be of use to other research projects’ Principal Investigators, management teams, and funders as a practical approach to Research Communication.
