12 QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK TO HELP ENABLE IMPACT

Designing and executing great research means getting your research questions right. They provide us with a scaffolding that keeps us targeted on what we need to focus on and deliver.

Achieving impact from research depends on much the same thing – asking ourselves good questions, only these are slightly different. So what are they? 

While there are many ways you can tackle this, in our time-constrained context borrowing what’s worked for others is a sensible way to go. Fortunately for us, the Our Land And Water (OLW) National Science Challenge has shared what has worked for them!

​In this article on their website, the OLW team share how a water use efficiency project (called Irrigation Insight) evolved from an initial focus on addressing the research question, to developing a solution that farmers could use to solve the fundamental water efficiency challenge.

​In a nutshell, MS Srinivasan (Principal Scientist, NIWA) found that although he was producing what he thought was helpful information for farmers so they could irrigate more efficiently, his outputs weren’t leading to farmers doing anything differently. 

“When the project started it was easy, as a scientist,
to identify the biophysical problem and the solution....I could find the data,
give farmers the data, and explain how to use a soil moisture sensor –
but ​it wasn’t solving the problem of water use efficiency.”
​- MS Srinivasan

​Through their use of a co-innovation approach, their multi-disciplinary team developed a set of 12 questions (building on work by Donald Schön). These helped to ‘unlock’ their understanding of the context their research was happening in. 

Engaging farmers and other stakeholders through the use of these 12 questions helped MS and the team design a fit-for-purpose project. Then once the project was up and running, these questions were used again, to enable healthy reflection (with their stakeholders) on the progress of the project. 

Building this structured reflection into the project then gave the team the clear rationale for various tweaks and improvements they made along the way to their plan. This was critical to the eventual success of the project.

For the iPEN team, the main takeaway from this success story is by engaging with a wide range of perspectives through really effective stakeholder engagement, allowed MS and his team their work and drive the change he was hoping to achieve.

“It started as a project on 5 or 6 farms, and now we’re ​ looking at
​what it means for the whole country."

Find out how the questions were developed and used and find links to publications: 12 Questions Scientists Should Ask Stakeholders to Increase Research Impact. 

The OLW team regularly share examples of how they are designing and delivering impact through their research. If you want to learn more subscribe to their newsletter!