Assessing the Impacts of Engaged Research and Its Use: Evidence and Opportunities

Dr. Rajesh Tandon was invited by Aspen Global Change Institute (USA) to speak at the Workshop on 'Assessing the Impacts of Engaged Research and Its Use: Evidence and Opportunities', which was held from 1st - 6th October 2023.

This workshop was hosted in partnership with the Transforming Evidence Funders Network (TEFN) to identify opportunities to advance the evidence base about the behavioral and societal changes associated with research processes that engage people with lived experience and evidence users (i.e., engaged research). Among other activities, participants were asked to help identify the actions funders could take to build out and improve the use of evidence – specifically, evidence about the impacts and outcomes of engaged research.

As engaged research becomes more commonplace, we need to learn from efforts across disparate contexts, compile these learnings into a cohesive evidence base, and improve the use of this evidence to inform engaged research efforts. In this workshop, thought leaders from a diverse range of disciplines, issue areas (including healthcare, education, environment, and international development), geographies, and types of expertise worked together to identify existing bodies of scholarship, knowledge gaps, and action steps related to:

• The quality, intensity, and longevity of engagement in the research process,
• Research impact (e.g., use of evidence in decision-making),
• Outcomes of interest (e.g., improved health or educational outcomes)

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