What works to increase research use?

A new systematic review from the EPPI-Centre at the Institute of Education looks at what works to increase research use by decision-makers. The review included 23 reviews whose relevance and methodological quality were judged appropriate.

There was reliable evidence that the following were effective:

  • Interventions facilitating access to research evidence, for example, through communications strategies and evidence repositories, conditional on the intervention design simultaneously trying to enhance decision-makers’ opportunity and motivation to use evidence.
  • Interventions building decision-makers’ skills to access and make sense of evidence (such as critical appraisal training programmes) conditional on the intervention design simultaneously trying to enhance both capability and motivation to use research evidence.

There was limited evidence that interventions that foster changes to decision-making structures and processes by formalising and embedding one or more of the other mechanisms of change within existing structures and processes (such as evidence-on-demand services integrating push, user-pull, and exchange approaches) enhance evidence use.

There is reliable evidence that some intense and complex interventions lead to an increase in evidence use. Overall though, simpler and more defined interventions appear to have a better likelihood of success.