How we support research
Beyond investing in research to foster leadership and expertise in the Global South
We believe that the people closest to a problem are best positioned to identify the solution and that solutions – no matter where they are born – can benefit all. Through investing in and building local expertise, we create fertile ground for innovation and forge strong relationships with the leaders of today and tomorrow. Our efforts are intentional. We contribute subject matter expertise and technical support on research design and implementation, create opportunities for peer learning and capacity strengthening and leverage and convene networks to extend the reach and visibility of promising solutions and innovations.
This leads to stronger research capacities, communities and ecosystems that generate and share rigorous evidence, which can support outcomes that transform lives and livelihoods through:
- New/strengthened local, national, regional and global policies and programs;
- Practices and behaviour change;
- Product development;
- Development, adaptation or application of innovations; and
- Directions of research fields.
Our focus on fostering leadership and expertise augments our adaptable approach to investing in research that is positioned for use, holds potential for scaling impact and/or fills a need in emerging or neglected areas of research.
Transforming ideas into action for meaningful, lasting change
We support high-quality research across a spectrum that ranges from individual projects that work to address challenges in particular contexts through to research that aims to catalyze broader systems change to strengthen evidence production and use. Why? To create opportunities for people and communities to build better futures.
From Ideas to Impact
Locally led high-quality research
To be effective, development solutions must be informed by Southern perspectives and expertise, while maintaining strong research ethics and safeguarding protocols and standards for participants and research teams. IDRC values Southern-led research that creates space for diverse perspectives and emerging researchers and research leaders.
We recognize that overcoming some of the world’s most pressing challenges calls for:
- Local expertise, insights and perspectives
- Collaborative, multidisciplinary approaches to research
- Rigorous, original and relevant Southern-led research
- Anticipating future research questions based on the rapidly changing landscape
- Research that promotes principles of openness, diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental sustainability
Research Quality Plus (RQ+)
IDRC’s flexible approach to evaluating the quality of research for development.
Open Access and Open Data
This helps ensure that research and data is available in a timely manner to everyone who can use – and build on – it to improve people’s lives.
Strategic Foresight
This tool guides IDRC-supported research to ensure it is relevant and impactful, not just today, but also tomorrow.
Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI)
The glossary ensures that IDRC focuses on gender equality and inclusion in our investments.
Moving research into action
IDRC invests in research that is positioned for use. Why? Because this is a key quality dimension of research for development.
To ensure research contributes to a more sustainable and inclusive world, how we fund research is as important as what research we fund. Research processes must engage the right people at the right time to achieve intended development outcomes. Here are key ways we move research into action:
- Support the generation and use of locally led, context-appropriate research.
- Prioritize initiatives that are designed and managed in ways that enhance the probability of research use and impact, including by incentivizing research that is co-produced with knowledge users and beneficiaries.
- Support the efforts of our partners to navigate the real-world processes of moving research into action based on their context-specific knowledge and experience.
- Invest in evidence synthesis, as well as the infrastructure and capacity for knowledge brokering and use.
- Invest in the science of research use and scaling impact.
- Identify and create opportunities to increase the reach and influence of Southern-led solutions to global challenges.
Research Quality Plus for Co-Production
A tool that prioritizes the importance of meaningful partnerships between researchers, knowledge holders, users and/or beneficiaries throughout research design, implementation and the sharing of research findings.
Scaling Science
IDRC programs not only work to scale the positive impacts of innovation, but we have been carefully studying how scaling unfolds.
Knowledge Translation
A learning-oriented evaluation that examines how we are embedding and strengthening knowledge translation capacity and outcomes in IDRC programs.
Evaluating and learning from research outcomes
It is crucial to identify and understand the outcomes of the research IDRC supports to ensure accountability, create opportunities for learning and provide robust evidence to tell our story of impact. IDRC’s monitoring and evaluation systems and processes take an actor-centered approach, embody principles of use- and user-focused data collection, analysis and sensemaking and recognize multiple contributions to outcomes in complex and adaptive systems.
IDRC is committed to building a culture of evaluation and learning while contributing to the field of evaluation. We do this by developing and adapting evaluation tools and resources and sharing our experience.
Consult the following resources to learn more about some of the approaches we use in evaluation:
Outcome Mapping
This approach to research design, monitoring and evaluation helps project teams be specific about the actors they support, the changes they expect to see and the strategies they employ to achieve intended results.
Evaluation
Learn about our approach to evaluation, and the findings from a range of different organizational evaluations.
Who we work with
We partner with those best positioned to influence and support change
For more than 50 years, IDRC has collaborated with leading minds and organizations. Our strength lies in our extensive global network, which includes:
- Researchers
- Think tanks, research institutes and research networks, and knowledge brokers
- Research users and beneficiaries (e.g., decision-makers, civil society organizations)
- Donor partners and science granting councils
- Private sector actors
- Organizations with technical assistance and/or development mandates (e.g. UN agencies)
Working with these partners, we listen to, support and amplify insights and voices from the Global South, fostering partnerships rooted in local leadership and knowledge.