Issues in research dissemination

The United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), runs a Knowledge and Research (KaR) programme in which it is recognised that knowledge generation and dissemination are key to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals; a principle which is stated in several DFID documents including Target Strategy Papers (DFID, 2000). The DFID KaR programme is based in London and commissions research into development problems which cut across geographical boundaries. The DFID KaR is divided into four programmes: research into rural livelihoods; health and population; social development; and infrastructure and urban development. Each programme commissions its research separately through a number of ways including annual calls for proposals and some individually commissioned researches. Two of these programmes, Health and Population and Rural Livelihoods sub-contract their research management to various organisations. As a result, they both have a number of small sectoral research programmes. DFID commissioned the Water, Engineering and Development Centre (WEDC) of Loughborough University, and Information Training and Development (ITAD) in September 2001, to carry out an evaluation of the dissemination of outputs of its KaR programme. The aim of this paper is to highlight the main issues that arose out of this evaluation and discuss how these impact on research dissemination.