• EADI / Events / Forthcoming events / EADI Masterclass / Communication

Getting Research into Practice - How to Write a Communications Strategy?

Dates: 2-3 December 2010                                     

Location: Bonn

Venue: EADI Secretariat

Ultimately, communicating development research needs to lead to better-informed decisions that will result in change for the better. Providing easy access to research, encouraging awareness and debate, arming people with useful knowledge and thus a better understanding of development issues will hopefully enable them to make better decisions. Effective communication is about providing the right kind of information to the right audience at the right time. Setting objectives, knowing who you want to reach and the best way to reach them are all crucial elements of an effective, logical communications strategy.  

Trainer

The workshop will be led by Louise Daniel, an independent research communicator with over 15 years experience in this field at the UK Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Knowledge Services and the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) in Rome.

Who is the course for?

For staff in research institutes, university departments, NGOs, think tanks and so on who have been tasked with leading on research communication in their organisation but with little experience of doing so. It is for communication officers, research officers, programme officers, programme managers and so on.

Course outline

Day 1 (09:00 - 17:00)

• Why communicate? Research uptake - what is needed to make it work? Is access to research enough?
• Goals and objectives
• Context: finance, staffing, timing, barriers, competition etc

Who do you want to reach? User and stakeholder analysis - this is key to monitoring and achieving impact. The more you know about your 'target' users and how they access information, the easier it will be to reach them.

What are your key messages? Problem - solution -  recommendation. Devising your 'elevator' speech and more detailed messages depending on your audiences.

• Principles of clear written communication - writing in plain English

Day 2 (09:00 - 17:00)

How: communication tools, tactics, activities and channels

• What channel will work best for your target audiences?
• What are the pros and cons of each?
• Who will do what, when and how much will it cost Real examples, e.g. blogging, policy briefs, social networking sites, posters, intermediaries

Measuring success

• How will you know your objectives are being met?
• Measuring outputs
• What outcomes are you expecting?

Each day will include time to work on the outline of a communications strategy for your research and examples of communication activities that have worked well - in particular in developing countries.

The workshop will be held in English.

Participants will receive

• Access to wiki with publications and training session documentation
• Certificate of participation provided by EADI

Register online (Places are still available) 

Participation fee is 650 EUR. There is a special discount of 100 EUR for EADI members and partners and also for students with valid student ID. In case of cancellation, EADI will refund the participation fee. The decision of cancellation will be made 14 days in advance.  

Lunch and refreshments are included. Please be aware that EADI does not offer any funding.

Please bring your own laptop.

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