Connecting Academic Researchers and Intermediary Organizations

• In Event: 18.036 - Research Taking Flight: How Researchers Can Ensure Their Work Makes an Impact

Abstract

Research plays a critical role in understanding how policy and practice may most effectively achieve desired outcomes. But, too often, researchers are conducting studies with little relevance to policymakers and practitioners, and policymakers and practitioners are unaware of the relevant research that does exist.
This presentation reports lessons learned from five “collaborations” between a national education research organization and members of five intermediary organizations, defined as organizations that seek to help policymakers and/or practitioners identify, understand, and apply research-based evidence. The five collaborating intermediary organizations were: Council on Independent Colleges, National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, NASFA: Association of International Educators, The Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education, and Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.
The two primary goals of the collaborations were to:
(1) Advance the production of high-quality research on important issues facing higher education administration, and
(2) Improve linkages between the creators and users of higher education research.
Each collaboration was appointed co-leaders from each represented organization. Initial group meetings (with 8 to 10 members each) occurred in November 2014. Each of the groups met (virtually and face-to-face) several times over the course of the year. Some collaborations have continued to meet even after the November 2015 “deliverable.”
In concluding conversations, collaboration members discussed the forces that limit connections between research and policy/practice, presented an agenda for the future research that is needed to inform policy and practice, and recommended strategies for promoting continued cross-organizational conversation. Several collaborations presented results of research that begins to address identified knowledge needs of policymakers and practitioners.
This presentation describes the goals and activities of the collaborations, as well as the lessons learned. One force that limits meaningful connections between research and policy/practice is that members of scholarly associations tend to attend different conferences and meetings than members of intermediary groups. In order to identify a shared agenda for future policy-relevant research, members of these different organizations must have the opportunity to talk with and learn from each other. Researchers and members of intermediary organizations often care about the same issues and problems, but they approach these issues with different understandings perspectives, and goals. Time, energy, and intentionality are required to develop shared understandings, as well as build the relationships and establish the trust that is required for productive collaborations.

Author

• Laura W. Perna, University of Pennsylvania