[Editor’s note: This post was written by Simonida Kacarska, Research Coordinator at the European Policy Institute, Macedonia. It is the tenth article of a series of reflections to share what facilitators and participants learned through P&I’s online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016.] Researching for a think tank/civil society organisation in the Balkans on issues of democratic governance I have found myself at various

[Editor’s note: This post is the eighth of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016.] In our course on policy relevant research, you learn about methods that you may not be familiar with, and you are encouraged to think about policy problems differently. This may inspire you to innovate, but before you do, le

[Editor’s note: This post is the seventh of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative. This post was originally published at Aditi Bulletin] There is a persistent perception that there is a tension between rigorous research and rese

[Editor’s note: This post is the sixth of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] In our previous posts we have gone through different aspects of designing, validating and developing a research agenda were, as part of the strate

[Editor’s note: This post is the fifth of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] In our previous post we introduced the seven principles for policy relevant research identified in existing literature and through practice. In th

[Editor’s note: This post is the fourth of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] In our previous post we introduced the seven principles for policy relevant research identified in existing literature and through practice. The

[Editor’s note: This post is the third of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] Why should one discuss individual and institutional research agendas when talking about policy relevance? From my experience working at and with t

[Editor’s note: This post is the second of a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] As we said in the first post of this series, our course is based on the premise that researchers and research institutions that do good research

[Editor’s note: This post is the introduction to a series produced by Andrea Ordóñez and Leandro Echt  from Politics & Ideas to share what we learned through the online course Doing policy relevant research, ran for the first time in the first quarter of 2016. The course was supported by the Think Tank Fund and the Think Tank Initiative.] The first round of the Doing policy relevant research course has finished successfully, and it has been inspiring. Just over a year ago, I

[Editor’s note: This post was written by Julie Brittain, who has recently become the Executive Director of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). She reflects on openness and what it means in the context of INASP’s work. This post was originally published at INASP’s blog Practising Development.] I’m now two months into my new job as Executive Director of INASP and I’ve been thinking a lot about openness. It’s partly prompted by an e

Development experiences from many Arab countries show that the achievement of development in different sectors depends on the practical level of knowledge and skills of the labor force available to those countries.  That’s why it is crucial to encourage southern research that can help the developing countries cope with the developed world, since it is the cornerstone in development where work force is trained to lead the social, economic, political and cultural changes. South

[Editor’s Note: This post was written by Clara Richards, programme manager at INASP, and was originally published at INASP’s blog] I originally shared these thoughts on the Evidence-Based Policy in Development Network (ebpdn) and after sparking some discussion, I thought it’d be good to also share them here on INASP’s Practising Development blog too. A colleague, Kirsty Newman, was recently looking for an example of research that had influenced policy not because of the quali