Final Report Summary - SCOOP (Socioeconomic sciences: communicating outcomes oriented to policy)
Executive summary:
The socio-economic sciences: the SCOOP project was set up to strengthen scientific evidence-based policy making through disseminating socio-economic sciences and humanities (SSH) research results funded under the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes (FP6 and FP7), and to build the capacity of these researchers to undertake such dissemination themselves. With this in mind, the project's key audiences were the policy makers at the local, regional, national and European level, civil society organisations (CSOs), the business community and the media (and to European citizens more widely).
Three main activities were developed to realise the project objectives throughout the life of the SCOOP project.
The SSH research for policy news alert service distributed a total of 26 electronic monthly news alerts in three years via a distinctive email template. Each issue featured up to six short articles highlighting policy-relevant contents of FP6 and FP7-funded research projects. The articles published in the news alert service covered all eight areas funded under FP7-SSH programme. Throughout the life of the project, a total of 144 articles were published in the news alert service.
A news alert service subscriber database was developed for the purposes of disseminating the monthly news alerts. The subscribers were categorised in accordance with key Directorate General Research and Innovation target audiences: European Union (EU) institutions, international organisations, national and regional authorities, and other, which consists of any other target group such as business and the media. The database held 8800 contacts as at 30 September 2012 when the project ended. The European Commission (EC) owns and has the right to the exclusive use of the SCOOP subscriber database.
Seven communication master classes delivered by two communication specialists (Dr Karen Bultitude and Terry Martin) with input from the project's scientific officer (Louisa Anastopoulou) were developed to improve the SSH researchers communication skills and build capacity amongst these researchers to communicate effectively with a range of audiences. Each master class ran over 1.5 days and involved:
- presentation of EU policy context;
- mixture of practical skills development and provision of resources;
- interactive format responsive to participants' needs.
The skills developed are broadly applicable to a variety of non-specialist audiences, and researchers attending the master classes were encouraged to consider ways of communicating and engaging with a wide range of audiences.
Across the SCOOP programme, a series of evaluation actions accompanied all project elements, to help tailor the SSH research for policy news alert service and the master classes to their target audiences, and to measure the impact of these actions on the subsequent interactions between SSH researchers and policy makers. Overall, researchers who responded to the various data collection processes represent a significant sample of the European SSH research community (taking into account that the same researchers might have been involved in more than one evaluation action, we can consider their number being from 300 to 400). Additionally, approximately 300 policy makers and administrators working at the European or national level from more than 20 European countries participated in the project's evaluation actions.
These data demonstrate that the SCOOP project actions (the news alert service and the master classes) present examples of successful practice in facilitating the transfer of knowledge between the research and policy communities. Interpretive tools, such as those provided by the news alert service, can facilitate the effective communication of research findings to wider non-academic communities, contextualising the research and providing concise, clear, appealing information. Additionally, researchers very much valued the practicality and relevance of the communication master classes, with the evaluative evidence demonstrating that they believed such communication training to be essential for EU-funded projects.
Project context and objectives:
The socio-economic sciences: the SCOOP project provided a tool for dissemination of the findings of SSH research funded under FP6 and FP7 of EU. A news alert service was created for the policy community and communication master class training was provided for SSH researchers to develop their communication skills further, particularly in relation to communicating with policy makers. Thus, the project focused on improving dissemination of the findings of EU FP6 and FP7-funded research projects to the policy community.
The project developed a direct mechanism, the SSH research for policy news alert service, for the dissemination of research findings. This tool was designed to improve the uptake of SSH research into policy at the local, regional, national and European levels. Secondary audiences for the news alert service comprised CSOs, the business community and the media (and via the media and project website, to European citizens more widely). Each month-news alert contained five-six news stories featuring one or more EU-funded project. Monthly news alerts were also archived on the project website, widening access to those not already subscribed to the news alert service.
In addition to disseminating information directly to the policy community, the project developed and ran a series of seven communication master classes. These master classes were designed to build communication skills within the SSH research community, specifically in relation to communicating with the policy community and increasing the impact of SSH research within wider society. Each master class lasted one and a half days and brought together researchers from a range of different EU-funded projects and across the full range of SSH disciplines funded via FP6 and FP7.
Considering the above elements, the SCOOP project was designed to facilitate the dissemination of SSH research to the following key audiences:
- 1. policy makers at the local, regional, national and European levels;
- 2. CSOs, the business community and the media (and to European citizens more widely).
Main objective operationalisation of objectives
To create a robust mechanism to disseminate SSH research to policy makers, CSOs, the business community and media. A news alert service was developed to facilitate the dissemination of the practical (applied) results of FP6 and FP7-funded SSH research. This service comprised 26 monthly emailed news alerts, featuring 5-6 SSH projects per issue. To develop and implement a promotional strategy that will generate 5000 subscribers to the news alert service. Key target groups were identified early in the project as policy makers working at EU, national, regional and local levels along with staff in CSOs. A contact database of 8800 subscribers was developed, primarily through strategies to identify the email addresses of people working in relevant organisations. The majority of the subscribers were added to the database within the first 16 months of the project.
To develop a set of training packages for SSH project coordinators and researchers to encourage more and better dissemination of their research findings to policy makers, CSOs, the business community and the media. Seven communication master classes designed to build the dissemination skills of FP6 and FP7-funded SSH researchers were developed. Each master class was 1.5 days in duration, including input from specialist writers, communicators and DG Research and Innovation staff. In the early stages of delivery, participant feedback was used to revise the master class to ensure it was best suited to the needs of the SSH research community.
To evaluate the effectiveness of SCOOP, SISSA Medialab developed and implemented a range of evaluation measures throughout the life of the project. These provided input into the development of the project elements (news alert service and training programme), as well as summative evaluation of the project over all. To disseminate the project to the research and the policy communities, a dissemination workshop was held in Brussels on 18 September 2012 to alert the policy community to the project outcomes. Additional dissemination actions arising from the project include a number of academic papers and interdisciplinary conference presentations.
Evaluation of the SCOOP project indicates that the news alert service and communication master classes present examples of successful practice in improving the flow of information from the research to the policy community. Interpretive tools, such as those provided by the news alert service, can go some way to facilitating the effective communication of research findings to wider non-academic communities, contextualising the research and providing concise, clear, appealing information. Additionally, researchers very much valued the practicality and relevance of the master classes, with the evaluative evidence demonstrating that they believed such communication training to be essential for EU-funded projects.
The SSH research for policy news alert service was perceived as a trusted and high-quality source of information on SSH research. During the three years of the project, the appreciation of the quality of the service, as well as its use increased. There is also evidence that the service became increasingly used for policy making purposes: in the 2012 survey the second reason for reading the news alert was to find useful information for policy-making purposes, whilst in 2011 this statement was rated only in fourth place. This motivation was also highest amongst policy makers. Evaluators were able to identify only a few cases of contact being made between researchers and policy makers that clearly originated from the news alert service. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the service produced a snow ball effect, with the published articles being used by researchers to prepare other project documents or for dissemination in the media, or to colleagues or other audiences (e.g. embedding the article in reports, sending the link to mailing lists, or adding it to their personal or university websites). Moreover, the articles were considered a model of good communication practice, and used as inspiration for other dissemination products.
The communication master classes empowered researchers both to create effective dissemination materials, and more generally to understand the needs of the different audiences (primarily policy makers), so as to be able to better plan the communication of their research for themselves. Many participants suggested that the course should be compulsory for all project coordinators or even required during the negotiation phase once a project is funded. There is a strong recommendation from the participants to continue to offer this type of training to researchers. They also identified specific areas where such training could be further developed, for example offering dedicated training to clusters of projects in related subject areas, or offering bespoke sessions to clusters of participants depending on how long their projects have been running. Participants also indicated interest in having a more advanced or follow up training opportunity that would enable further development of the skills they developed within the existing SCOOP master classes.
Potential impact:
SCOOP facilitated the immediate transfer of new research findings, through the news alert service, and built capacity amongst SSH researchers through the provision of communication master classes. The news alert service was designed to disseminate findings from SSH projects directly to the policy community at the EU, national, regional and local level as well as to other interested groups, such as CSOs, businesses and the media. The communication master class training programme was designed to develop researchers' communication skills, specifically in relation to communicating with policy makers, whether at the supranational level (EU) or other levels of governance.
List of websites: http://www.scoopproject.org.uk
The socio-economic sciences: the SCOOP project was set up to strengthen scientific evidence-based policy making through disseminating socio-economic sciences and humanities (SSH) research results funded under the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes (FP6 and FP7), and to build the capacity of these researchers to undertake such dissemination themselves. With this in mind, the project's key audiences were the policy makers at the local, regional, national and European level, civil society organisations (CSOs), the business community and the media (and to European citizens more widely).
Three main activities were developed to realise the project objectives throughout the life of the SCOOP project.
The SSH research for policy news alert service distributed a total of 26 electronic monthly news alerts in three years via a distinctive email template. Each issue featured up to six short articles highlighting policy-relevant contents of FP6 and FP7-funded research projects. The articles published in the news alert service covered all eight areas funded under FP7-SSH programme. Throughout the life of the project, a total of 144 articles were published in the news alert service.
A news alert service subscriber database was developed for the purposes of disseminating the monthly news alerts. The subscribers were categorised in accordance with key Directorate General Research and Innovation target audiences: European Union (EU) institutions, international organisations, national and regional authorities, and other, which consists of any other target group such as business and the media. The database held 8800 contacts as at 30 September 2012 when the project ended. The European Commission (EC) owns and has the right to the exclusive use of the SCOOP subscriber database.
Seven communication master classes delivered by two communication specialists (Dr Karen Bultitude and Terry Martin) with input from the project's scientific officer (Louisa Anastopoulou) were developed to improve the SSH researchers communication skills and build capacity amongst these researchers to communicate effectively with a range of audiences. Each master class ran over 1.5 days and involved:
- presentation of EU policy context;
- mixture of practical skills development and provision of resources;
- interactive format responsive to participants' needs.
The skills developed are broadly applicable to a variety of non-specialist audiences, and researchers attending the master classes were encouraged to consider ways of communicating and engaging with a wide range of audiences.
Across the SCOOP programme, a series of evaluation actions accompanied all project elements, to help tailor the SSH research for policy news alert service and the master classes to their target audiences, and to measure the impact of these actions on the subsequent interactions between SSH researchers and policy makers. Overall, researchers who responded to the various data collection processes represent a significant sample of the European SSH research community (taking into account that the same researchers might have been involved in more than one evaluation action, we can consider their number being from 300 to 400). Additionally, approximately 300 policy makers and administrators working at the European or national level from more than 20 European countries participated in the project's evaluation actions.
These data demonstrate that the SCOOP project actions (the news alert service and the master classes) present examples of successful practice in facilitating the transfer of knowledge between the research and policy communities. Interpretive tools, such as those provided by the news alert service, can facilitate the effective communication of research findings to wider non-academic communities, contextualising the research and providing concise, clear, appealing information. Additionally, researchers very much valued the practicality and relevance of the communication master classes, with the evaluative evidence demonstrating that they believed such communication training to be essential for EU-funded projects.
Project context and objectives:
The socio-economic sciences: the SCOOP project provided a tool for dissemination of the findings of SSH research funded under FP6 and FP7 of EU. A news alert service was created for the policy community and communication master class training was provided for SSH researchers to develop their communication skills further, particularly in relation to communicating with policy makers. Thus, the project focused on improving dissemination of the findings of EU FP6 and FP7-funded research projects to the policy community.
The project developed a direct mechanism, the SSH research for policy news alert service, for the dissemination of research findings. This tool was designed to improve the uptake of SSH research into policy at the local, regional, national and European levels. Secondary audiences for the news alert service comprised CSOs, the business community and the media (and via the media and project website, to European citizens more widely). Each month-news alert contained five-six news stories featuring one or more EU-funded project. Monthly news alerts were also archived on the project website, widening access to those not already subscribed to the news alert service.
In addition to disseminating information directly to the policy community, the project developed and ran a series of seven communication master classes. These master classes were designed to build communication skills within the SSH research community, specifically in relation to communicating with the policy community and increasing the impact of SSH research within wider society. Each master class lasted one and a half days and brought together researchers from a range of different EU-funded projects and across the full range of SSH disciplines funded via FP6 and FP7.
Considering the above elements, the SCOOP project was designed to facilitate the dissemination of SSH research to the following key audiences:
- 1. policy makers at the local, regional, national and European levels;
- 2. CSOs, the business community and the media (and to European citizens more widely).
Main objective operationalisation of objectives
To create a robust mechanism to disseminate SSH research to policy makers, CSOs, the business community and media. A news alert service was developed to facilitate the dissemination of the practical (applied) results of FP6 and FP7-funded SSH research. This service comprised 26 monthly emailed news alerts, featuring 5-6 SSH projects per issue. To develop and implement a promotional strategy that will generate 5000 subscribers to the news alert service. Key target groups were identified early in the project as policy makers working at EU, national, regional and local levels along with staff in CSOs. A contact database of 8800 subscribers was developed, primarily through strategies to identify the email addresses of people working in relevant organisations. The majority of the subscribers were added to the database within the first 16 months of the project.
To develop a set of training packages for SSH project coordinators and researchers to encourage more and better dissemination of their research findings to policy makers, CSOs, the business community and the media. Seven communication master classes designed to build the dissemination skills of FP6 and FP7-funded SSH researchers were developed. Each master class was 1.5 days in duration, including input from specialist writers, communicators and DG Research and Innovation staff. In the early stages of delivery, participant feedback was used to revise the master class to ensure it was best suited to the needs of the SSH research community.
To evaluate the effectiveness of SCOOP, SISSA Medialab developed and implemented a range of evaluation measures throughout the life of the project. These provided input into the development of the project elements (news alert service and training programme), as well as summative evaluation of the project over all. To disseminate the project to the research and the policy communities, a dissemination workshop was held in Brussels on 18 September 2012 to alert the policy community to the project outcomes. Additional dissemination actions arising from the project include a number of academic papers and interdisciplinary conference presentations.
Evaluation of the SCOOP project indicates that the news alert service and communication master classes present examples of successful practice in improving the flow of information from the research to the policy community. Interpretive tools, such as those provided by the news alert service, can go some way to facilitating the effective communication of research findings to wider non-academic communities, contextualising the research and providing concise, clear, appealing information. Additionally, researchers very much valued the practicality and relevance of the master classes, with the evaluative evidence demonstrating that they believed such communication training to be essential for EU-funded projects.
The SSH research for policy news alert service was perceived as a trusted and high-quality source of information on SSH research. During the three years of the project, the appreciation of the quality of the service, as well as its use increased. There is also evidence that the service became increasingly used for policy making purposes: in the 2012 survey the second reason for reading the news alert was to find useful information for policy-making purposes, whilst in 2011 this statement was rated only in fourth place. This motivation was also highest amongst policy makers. Evaluators were able to identify only a few cases of contact being made between researchers and policy makers that clearly originated from the news alert service. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the service produced a snow ball effect, with the published articles being used by researchers to prepare other project documents or for dissemination in the media, or to colleagues or other audiences (e.g. embedding the article in reports, sending the link to mailing lists, or adding it to their personal or university websites). Moreover, the articles were considered a model of good communication practice, and used as inspiration for other dissemination products.
The communication master classes empowered researchers both to create effective dissemination materials, and more generally to understand the needs of the different audiences (primarily policy makers), so as to be able to better plan the communication of their research for themselves. Many participants suggested that the course should be compulsory for all project coordinators or even required during the negotiation phase once a project is funded. There is a strong recommendation from the participants to continue to offer this type of training to researchers. They also identified specific areas where such training could be further developed, for example offering dedicated training to clusters of projects in related subject areas, or offering bespoke sessions to clusters of participants depending on how long their projects have been running. Participants also indicated interest in having a more advanced or follow up training opportunity that would enable further development of the skills they developed within the existing SCOOP master classes.
Potential impact:
SCOOP facilitated the immediate transfer of new research findings, through the news alert service, and built capacity amongst SSH researchers through the provision of communication master classes. The news alert service was designed to disseminate findings from SSH projects directly to the policy community at the EU, national, regional and local level as well as to other interested groups, such as CSOs, businesses and the media. The communication master class training programme was designed to develop researchers' communication skills, specifically in relation to communicating with policy makers, whether at the supranational level (EU) or other levels of governance.
List of websites: http://www.scoopproject.org.uk