But delivering "useful" research is perhaps more challenging thanagreeing the principle. The question is: should research be useful?There are various assumptions and views about its potential uses androles. And the stakeholders involved - researchers, policymakers,funders, commissioners, practitioners and service users - have diverseneeds and imperatives.
We need to look at how researchers design "usefulness" into their work.How is research employed by policymakers? How do funders seek to informand influence policy and practice? Where do service users stand? And towhat extent do these communities engage in dialogue and interact?
Research in Practice recently held a seminar at The Nuffield Foundationto debate research's impact on service providers. Attendees includedhealth, education, social care and youth justice professionals. Issuesranged from the importance of understanding context and negotiating thepower relations in research to recognising that it is not linear andevidence cannot be shoe-horned into practice.
Attendees also looked at how to increase interaction between players,develop the concepts of engagement and participation, and translateresearch into the right formats for different audiences. The need totrain researchers to communicate better and the importance of knowledgebrokers were also discussed.
The overriding message was that we need to make research more relevantand have better impact on services and outcomes. The reality is thatresearch itself cannot generate change in services, but debate, argumentand interaction about it can.
