End-users and researchers engaged in technical discussions during breakout sessions at the 2016 Research Advisory Forum in Hobart.
With many CRC projects now reaching a critical point in their life cycle, the recent Research Advisory Forum (RAF) in Hobart on 11-12 May provided an excellent opportunity to check progress and (where necessary) refocus directions heading into the final stages of some work. With over 130 attendees, this was the biggest RAF ever. The plenary sessions offered an opportunity for researchers to present either a ‘broad brush’ insight, or alternatively focus upon a specific aspect of their project.
But much of the real work of the RAF took place in the parallel breakout sessions that matched researchers with end-users (and other interested parties). The CRC’s focus on research utilisation means that researchers and end-users alike must be able to chart clear pathways that show research will be adopted or used in a demonstrable way.
In the social sciences, it is not always that easy to show research is influencing, say, policy change in an immediate way. The breakout sessions were an opportunity to explore this, and to come up with markers and examples of utilisation that neither researchers nor end-users might have considered, along with the more obvious measures. Sometimes it is just about adding to the sum total of human knowledge, but more often than not there is an identifiable and useful takeout.