Communicating your research - a toolkit Help increase influence and impact in health and health care
June 2017
What you'll learn
- Understand how to plan your communications activity and focus your communications on where they can make the most impact.
- Learn to adapt and present your findings in order to engage different audiences.
- Understand how to engage the key audiences for research dissemination and achieve impact on policy and practice.
By working through the sections in this toolkit you can reassure yourself that you are following best practice at every point in your research project and not missing any important steps.
You can access individual tools, templates and supporting materials, such as a communications plan template, as and when needed.
Section 1: Planning for impact
This section will help you plan your communications activity and focus on making impact.
There are three parts to this section:
- Using strategic communications planning to increase impact.
- Identifying and prioritising audiences.
- Choosing the right communications channels.

Section 2: Communicating your research results
This section will help you adapt and present your findings for different audiences.
There are three parts to this section:
- Creating messages.
- Effective ways to present research findings.
- Turning planning into action.

Section 3: Extending influence and widening impact
This section will help you understand how to engage three of the key audiences for research dissemination and achieve impact on policy and practice.
There are four parts to this section:
- Demonstrating impact through communications activity.
- Influencing a policy audience.
- Engaging a practice audience.
- Communicating with the public.

Section 4: Glossary of terms
This section provides an explanation of the terms used in this toolkit.

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Further resource
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