In Episode 2 of Research to Action's 'Cup of tea with' webinar series Yaso Kunaratnam Policy & Research Officer at UKCDS spoke about competition, collaboration and impact from the perspective of donors and funders of development research. The webinar took a slightly different approach to the topic stakeholder engagement, looking at the under explored area of how funders can collaborate more. Yaso presented findings from UKCDS' latest report about how funders can better support research uptake and impact.

1. Episode 2
‘A cup of tea with….’
Yaso Kunaratnam
Research & Policy Officer, UKCDS

2. House keeping
• 5 minute introduction by Saskia Gent
• 15 minute discussion with Yaso Kunaratnam
• 10 minute Q&A with the audience
• When you have a question please type it into the
question box and we will share it with the panel
and participants.
• If you do not have a chance to ask your question
please send it in via email or social media using
the hashtag #R2AWebinar.

3. Poll
How well do you think development research
funders and donors promote and support research
uptake and impact?
Very well
Well
Satisfactorily
Badly
Don’t Know

4. About UKCDS
• UKCDS is a group of 14 UK
Government departments and
research funders working in
international development.
• Key aim is to help maximise
the impact of UK research
investments in international
development.
• See http://www.ukcds.org.uk/

5. Balancing CCI for research excellence & impact
Competition
ImpactCollaboration
strengthened research
capacity
research excellence
evidence-informed decision -
making/policy/practice
long-lasting, transformative
collaborations
innovation
research uptake/ policy
influence
open data and knowledge
interdisciplinarity
southern participation/
engagement
equitable north-south and south-
south research partnerships
co-production of knowledge
socio-economic and
environmental benefits in LMICs
research quality
From 2017 UKCDS report looking at funder approaches and perspectives: Striking the
balance: Between Competition, Collaboration and Impact in international development
research calls & programmes and blog.

6. Findings on Research Uptake & Impact (RUI)
• Research is seen as central to drive development impact and is being increasingly
supported by Governments in LMICs and international funders.
• There is increasing pressure for funders to demonstrate and account for the impact
of research they fund in international development.
• In an international development context, researchers are being required to shift
from demonstrating research excellence alone (high quality research making
academic advances), to also proving connection to benefits on the ground in
developing countries.

7. Funder activities to support RUI
Activities
Pre Award Stage
 Call design and specification for impact.
 Scoping workshops.
 Expert Advisory Groups.
 Fostering programme coherence
 design programme with complementary themes.
 hold back money for integration.
 provide funding for researchers to adapt proposals or
collaborate.
 Providing feedback on applications.
 Peer review.
 Catalyst grants.
Post-Award Stage
 Programme-level research uptake support and evaluation.
 Post-award workshop/s.
 Post-award funding.
 Programme conference.
 Using flexible approaches in programme design.
Post-funding models
 Directorate.
 Research Programme Consortia (RPC).

8. How can development research funders and donors
better support research uptake and impact?
• Hold back money for post-award
activities and programme
integration/coherence.
• Link multiple calls across funders to
maximise impact.
• Shift to a demand-led approach (rather
than supply-led) through scoping country
and decision-maker needs first and
thinking about interventions in a political
context.
• More targeted support for independent
knowledge brokers who broker research
from all possible sources (beyond
funders’ own portfolios).
• Further investigation of overarching
post-funding models.
• Explore how to support research that
will see long-term impact beyond the
lifetime of the funded research
programme (e.g. in environmental
sciences).
• Explore how to support
interdisciplinarity more effectively and
offering better guidance on capacity
strengthening.
• Improve peer review and assessment of
interdisciplinarity, capacity development,
partnerships and impact.
• Explore ways to address tensions in
achieving research impact in
international development and research
excellence.

9. Research Uptake/Impact Resources
1. UKCDS report: Striking the balance: Between Competition, Collaboration and Impact in
international development research calls & programmes and blog.
2. Analysis of REF case studies in international development 2015 and top 20 case studies.
3. UKCDS research uptake exploratory workshop with funders.
4. UKCDS /DFID Guidelines on how to evaluate research programmes.
5. UKCDS researcher hub, ‘Your Research: Science for Global Good’ includes case studies, a
new funding hub and tips for building partnerships.
6. UKCDS member guides e.g. ESRC’s impact toolkit and DFID’s Research Uptake Guide.

10. Join us for the next webinar
3) Thursday 30th March ‘Capacity building’ with
Diana Coates, speaking about DRUSSA.
4) Thursday 27th April ‘Communications’ with
INASP.
5) Thursday 25th May ‘Monitoring & Evaluation’
with John Young, ODI RAPID.
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