Who are the intended users of this toolkit?
This toolkit is designed to help global development practitioners and researchers form more fruitful collaborations with one another. For the purposes of this toolkit, practitioners are defined as “individuals or institutions that will directly utilize the evidence from the research project in practice, such as a donor, government agency, nongovernmental organization, civil society, or the private sector.” A researcher is defined as “scholars with advanced degrees who work at universities and conduct primary research.” Practitioners also generate evidence, but for the purposes of this toolkit, we characterize researchers as researchers in academic institutions.
How Do I Use the Toolkit?
Challenge: This toolkit is organized by potential challenges or areas of friction that are often inherent due to the different perspectives of each person involved in a research partnership. Since researchers and practitioners have different world views, experiences, and needs these challenges can occur. Each challenge presents a caricature of what an academic researcher and a practitioner might say and a suggested convergence point, or perspective that can ease conflict and improve the partnership.
Discussion guide: Following each challenge is a discussion guide with questions that each entity in the partnership can ask the other to understand each other better in an effort to address the challenges. It is recommended for researchers and practitioners to have an open dialogue to learn each other’s perspectives and forge a way to work together.
Tools: Lastly, there are a list of resources, templates, or activities that can assist in resolving the blindspot and improve the working relationship. The title of the tool is in bold followed by the citation which is a link to the document. The citation is organized in the following way. (Author, Year of publication, page number to find tool in document).
How can I contribute to the toolkit?
We hope this toolkit assists your partnership. If you come across other resources which may be helpful in expanding the toolkit, please use the “Contribute a Resource” Form at the bottom of the homepage.
What Is LASER PULSE?
LASER (Long-term Services for Research) PULSE (Partners for University-Led Solutions Engine) is a five-year, $70 million program funded through the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Innovation, Technology, and Research Hub, that delivers research-driven solutions to field-sourced development challenges in USAID interest countries. A consortium led by Purdue University, with core partners Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Indiana University, Makerere University, and the University of Notre Dame implements the LASER PULSE program through a growing network of 2,300+ researchers and development practitioners in 56 countries.
LASER PULSE collaborates with USAID missions, bureaus, and independent offices and other local stakeholders to identify research needs for critical development challenges, and funds and strengthens capacity of researcher-practitioner teams to co-design solutions that translate into policy and practice.