Research does not become useful to a country by accident.
It becomes useful when it was designed to be, from the question onward — and most of the failures happen at that first step rather than at dissemination.
Where the link breaks
- Questions set by international agendas rather than local needs.
- Findings published where practitioners will never see them.
- No route from research to the people who could act on it.
- Assessment rewarding international visibility over local usefulness.
- The break is usually at the question, not at the end.
Designing for relevance
- Involve those who would use the findings when setting the question.
- Ask what decision the research would inform.
- Design so a null result is still informative.
- Plan dissemination before starting, not afterwards.
- Relevance built in at design is different from relevance claimed at the end.
Reaching the users
- Publish where practitioners read, which may be a regional or local-language venue.
- Produce a short summary for non-researchers.
- Present to practitioner and policy audiences.
- Maintain relationships with those who could use the work.
- Findings that stay in journals reach nobody who acts.
The tension with assessment
- Locally useful work is often the least rewarded.
- Local-language and applied output is invisible in metrics.
- Researchers face a real conflict between usefulness and career.
- This is a policy problem to be fixed at the assessment end, not a failing of individuals.
- Publishing in both places, where contributions genuinely differ, is the individual workaround.
What systems can do
- Recognise applied and local-language output in assessment.
- Fund research aligned with identified national needs.
- Build routes between researchers and users.
- Support translation of findings into usable form.
- Measure use, not only publication.
Not at the expense of basic research
- Applied and basic research are complementary, not alternatives.
- Capability built in one supports the other.
- Over-directing research toward immediate application undermines the capacity that makes application possible.
- A balance is required, and stating that is not evasion.
One thing worth remembering
Ask at the design stage: who would use this, and what decision would it inform?
Research designed with an answer to that question tends to be used. Research that acquires relevance claims at the writing-up stage rarely is.
Câu hỏi thường gặp
Where does the link between research and development break?
Usually at the question — set by international agendas rather than local needs — as well as at publication venue, dissemination routes, and assessment incentives.
How is relevance designed in?
Involve those who would use findings when setting the question, ask what decision it would inform, design so a null result is informative, and plan dissemination before starting.
How do findings reach users?
Publishing where practitioners read which may be regional or local-language, producing short summaries for non-researchers, presenting to policy audiences, and maintaining relationships.
What is the tension with assessment?
Locally useful work is often least rewarded since local-language and applied output is invisible in metrics — a policy problem to fix at the assessment end.
What question should be asked at design stage?
Who would use this and what decision would it inform — research designed with an answer tends to be used.
