The Impact Lab
What makes impact work?
The Impact Lab seeks to strengthen links and create dialogue by providing an outline of the issues and clear lessons for knowledge practitioners, donors and researchers.
Find out here how to enable change through social science research or read more about why the Impact Lab was set up.
The Impact Initiative has maximised the impact of global development research through dialogue, synthesis and communications for six years. The Impact Initiative team would like to thank the researchers and partners that have made this initiative possible:
Additional publications and resources published as part of the Impact Initiative, including outputs from the individual projects enabled through ESRC-FCDO's Joint Fund for Poverty Alleviation Research and Raising Learning Outcomes in Education Systems Research Programme, are available from the Impact Initiative collections which are stored in the IDS OpenDocs repository.
Edited collection:
First-hand accounts of impact to action which focus on how to institutionalize best practice and lessons. The collection reflects a range of experiences (both negative and positive) and includes in-depth case studies and featured authors. This collection draws on what is common, as well as unique, across different sectors and perspectives. Contributors include researchers, funders, practitioners and policymakers

This report, by the Impact Initiative for International Development Research, provides an approach for brokering evidence across large research investments.

Analysis of the critical challenges faced by organisations and individuals involved in evidence-informed development through a diverse set of case studies and think pieces
Learning guides:
A series of Learning Guides which draws on the lessons for successful impact.
Each Learning Guide identifies replicable approaches to effective engagement in a particular area previously identified as a potential barrier for impact

Cultivating demand for evidence to influence policy and practice for greater research impact

How to engage research with policy and practice to strengthen decision-making

Strong networks and relationships contribute to greater impact of global development research