Short Commentary
Rachel L. Finn, Elizabeth Cumm
Abstract
Policy-focused research projects must engage with an array of stakeholders to ensure that policy recommendations are relevant to a large proportion of the population and align with the needs of organisations and policy-makers responsible for their implementation. Strategies of stakeholder engagement and dissemination are key to any research programme, particularly in e-inclusion where stakeholders are fragmented. This article uses examples from the Bridging Research in Ageing and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development (BRAID) project, funded under the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission, to examine the effectiveness of different stakeholder engagement strategies and make recommendations for future policy-focused research projects. The BRAID project findings indicate that certain engagement strategies are more successful that others at integrating particular stakeholders. Based on this, we recommend that projects evaluate the types of stakeholders they are successfully reaching, design their dissemination strategies accordingly, and use a variety of engagement activities to ensure that all stakeholders are represented.