The Impact Initiative has closed. This website has now been archived and will no longer be updated.
The Impact Initiative has closed. This website has now been archived and will no longer be updated.

The Impact Initiative

Our mission is to increase the uptake and impact of research from two major research programmes jointly funded by the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO): the Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research and the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme. [read more] 

The Impact Initiative 

Explore the research

Education
Teaching and learning, poverty, gender, disability

RLO
Children & Young People
Health, education, protection, livelihoods
Gender
Health, education, social norms, power, rights
Governance
Participation, accountability, citizenship, rights
Health
Health equity, accountability, infectious diseases, maternal health
Livelihoods
Making a living, securing basic necessities
Security
Development and conflict contexts, local governance, religion, gender
Urban/Rural
Issues specific to urban or rural contexts, migration, the environment

Track the impact

Testing and showcasing ways that research can bring about change

Improving Adult Literacy in Niger Through Mobile Calls to Teachers

Research in adult education programmes in Niger directly led to improved reading and maths scores. Based on the evidence, the approach has also been tested by the Ministry of Education in primary schools.

Outsourcing Primary Education in Liberia

Following contracting out of government primary schools to private companies in Liberia, researchers have examined the effects of these partnerships and how the schools deliver (or fail to deliver) better outcomes.

Improving Early Childhood Education in Rural Bangladesh

Research in Bangladesh demonstrates how early childhood programmes could be effectively adapted for implementation at scale, using locally available resources and infrastructure.
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Download the resources

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Maximising the Impact of Global Development Research

This report, by the Impact Initiative for International Development Research, provides an approach for brokering evidence across large research investments. It is based on six years of work undertaken by the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and the REAL Centre based at the University of Cambridge, engaging with over 200 research projects funded by the ESRC-FCDO Strategic Partnership. It provides lessons and recommended practices for all those funding and designing social science research for development and seeking to maximise its impact beyond academia.

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Celebrating the impact of the Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Programme

Provides a snapshot of the impact achieved by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) funded Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme (RLO). It provides a reflection on the different types of impact that research projects have achieved to inform discussion and learning around impact pathways for both researcher and funders

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Recipes for Impact - revised edition

This revised booklet profiles a selection of research funded by the ESRC-FCDO Strategic Partnership and the impact they have achieved. Impact stories show a snapshot of research and highlight the multiple, unique and surprising paths to achieving impact.
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Catch up on the news

The case for maximising research impact at a time of brutal cuts
Now is the time to make a case for a collectivised, programme level approach to knowledge brokering and impact. The increasing calls for policy to “follow the science”, pressures created by ODA cuts and the urgent requirement to demonstrate the value of research, make for the perfect opportunity to secure approaches to connecting research with policy that value wider bodies of knowledge and broader definitions of impact.
Knowledge brokering must accompany research from the start
Impact support services that try to build the capacity of researchers and broker knowledge between academia, policy and practice need to be built into programmes from the start. This is one of the key messages coming out of a new review commissioned by the UKRI. With the launch of the new Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), capturing learning from the ESRC-DFID Partnership could not come at a better time.
Policy and research: It’s the relationships stupid
The evidence community is finally taking the relational and societal aspects of getting evidence into use seriously. James Georgalakis asks if donors, researchers, elected officials and policy professionals are ready to create research-policy partnerships that can deal with these social realities. Relationships should be built on trust, an understanding of our differences and where the sweet spot for collaboration exists.
COVID 19: Thinking differently about education research impact
In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are faced with the challenge of adapting their plans for achieving changes in policy and practice through new evidence. A webinar hosted by the Impact Initiative set out to explore how researchers may need to think differently about impact for education policy and practice, and what kind of support they might need from funders and policy actors.
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Celebrating six years of the Impact Initiative

The Impact Initiative for International Development has maximized the impact of global development research through dialogue, synthesis and communications for six years. The programme has drawn to a close and the Impact Initiative team extends sincere thanks to the grantholders, research funders and partners that have made the initiative possible. This website will remain accessible and we hope that the resources, content and material available will continue to keep conversations about maximising research impact going in other spaces.

Research funders urged to take a collective approach to support impact

Funders are urged to take a new approach to engaging evidence with policy that values collaborations and learning. This synthesis work demonstrates the need to look across projects, not just within.

Reconceptualising teacher professional development in Honduras

Exploring a new model that draws on on ESRC-FCDO RLO research to provide an intervention to help teachers improve their teaching practices.