Enhancing the Use and Usefulness of Research in Policy and Practice

The purpose of the session is to share lessons and stimulate discussion about ways to increase the use and usefulness of research. Recent decisions by federal and state administrations to tie funding to evidence-based practices reflect an effort to increase accountability and improve social programs through the application of research. These policies are intended to mitigate risk for vulnerable youth and families and to create a shift towards healthier outcomes. Prevention science has a role in this process. Prevention science has a long history of generating rigorous research, but can do more to ensure its use. In 2009 the William T. Grant Foundation started an initiative to better understand how research evidence is used in policy and practice and to identify ways to strengthen is usefulness. The Foundation has funded empirical projects that build theory and increase our understanding of when, how, and under what conditions research is used. This session presents what we and others are learning about how decision-makers engage with research. The chair will give a short overview of the problem: families are struggling and although there are volumes of research to inform responses to their challenges, impactful uses of research are limited. A strong tradition has developed to focus on better disseminating research, but work from our grantees suggests that productive uses of research often start before dissemination. Three cases will be considered that highlight conditions that promote research use. The second presentation will be from the perspective of a federal research office that has successfully executed an initiative that considers how research projects and products are conceptualized to increase the utility of findings for policy and practice. The speaker will provide examples related to funding priorities, study design, input from stakeholders and dissemination. The third discussant will share findings from a study of one state’s effort to use research to improve youth services. The fourth will report on an investigation of how research was used at a local level to implement evidence-based programs. Roundtable participants will be asked to provide a brief description of their study and share what they are learning about research use. Presenters will discuss some of the obstacles to using research and conditions that support its productive use. The session will end with recommendations for how researchers conceptualize studies to increase the utility of their findings. Audience members will engage with panel members as they respond to the prompts noted above.