Hi Jacklyne, hi all
Thanks for these great inputs. Agree that the TDR SORT IT training approach – and especially the knowledge management module – are great and impactful initiative. Fully agree with your assessments that hands-on capacity building (for research and knowledge translation), more awareness in the research community, and sensitizing donors play an important role.
As capacity building tends to be resource-intense, and unfortunately not everybody can attend a SORT IT course, I also keep wondering if and how key success factors of the format could be made more broadly available? The close 1:1 mentoring is hard to replace, but the SORT IT approach to me successfully operationalizes some principles that could be applied for improved research communication in general:
* Consider and plan for communicating for policy or practice change from the design stage of research (consider, for instance, making decision-makers and implementation partners co-authors. Look for key policy moments or major communication opportunities such as thematic days, conferences etc.)
* Prioritize communication objectives and target audience over complex formats and reach: try to reach key decision-makers and implementers first, rather than trying to reach a diffuse mass
* Use available templates (of briefs, presentations, elevator pitches), and write with a clear message and audience in mind
* Collaborate closely with communication and knowledge translation colleagues (such as your comms department, colleagues or friends working in communications etc.)
* Apply the same principles of (peer-)review to communication materials – share and improve content as much as possible with colleagues and friends
Would you agree? There are likely other elements we could add to the list here….
Best regards
Sam
HIFA profile: Samuel Sieber is a Knowledge Translation and Communication Specialist, Global Coordination Mechanism on NCDs, Global NCD Platform, Deputy Director General's Office, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland. He is a member of the HIFA working group on Communicating health research. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/samuel siebers AT who.int
