ARCH Stakeholder Mapping Report

1. Introduction: Applying Research to Policy and Practice for Health (ARCH) programme
Currently, there is wide separation between teams that undertake health research, those making decisions on health
priorities and policies, and those who are delivering healthcare, particularly in resource-limited settings. Research
considered “successful” typically concludes with the publishing of papers. Less attention is paid to how, and indeed if,
those findings are made visible and accessible to those tasked with decision-making and clinical caregiving. Further,
those working in delivering healthcare are often not aware of new interventions and have no means to determine if
they would bring benefit to their community. Such health interventions could be novel treatments or new approaches
to practice and prevention that would serve to address their local health priorities. Health researchers, decision-makers
and implementers need to work together better to ensure that research evidence is made easily accessible as
recommendations that can be taken up into policy and practice at all levels.
Previous efforts to enable taking research into practice have typically been short-term focussing on a single intervention
or product for a specific disease. As a result, this work was not well-established or embedded into programmes or
institutions. Together these factors represent barriers to the implementation of proven interventions, treatments and
vaccines which ultimately limit the potential benefits to human health. This programme builds upon proven and existing
systems that successfully bring global health organisations together to create efficiency and strong impact by facilitating
knowledge exchange, active coordination, and collaboration.
The Global Health Network aims to bring together researchers, policymakers, and implementers to address these gaps
in research uptake to both conduct research to better understand this landscape and together develop the associated
mechanisms to bridge these gaps. In doing so, we aim to:
• Foster a global, multi-disciplinary community of practice, bringing together research, development, and policyexperts
to share best practice and exchange knowledge and skills. The community will be brought together
through a digital knowledge hub.
• Understand the research uptake landscape, including stakeholders, barriers, and opportunities, in order to
develop and deliver the tools, resources and training needed to support researchers, policymakers and
development partners in this work.
• Embed a network of Coordinators across the Global South, ensuring the contextual barriers and enablers for
research uptake are understood and addressed throughout this work and bridging between local and global
initiatives within this project.
• Apply advanced digital technology to enable rapid synthesis of available research findings and
recommendations to drive improvements in research uptake, beginning with the findings from the ZIKV
outbreak.
This 2-year Wellcome-funded proof of concept award will develop a strong evidence base for this work and bring
together a global community of practice.
2. Stakeholder mapping
As part of the ARCH programme, there is a need to understand the research uptake landscape. Partnerships with key
stakeholder groups involved in the various aspects of the research uptake are crucial to ensure this project amplifies
existing and ongoing work, reduces duplication and that the strategy and initiatives meet the needs of the health
research community. A key activity to inform who these groups are and how to engage with them is a stakeholder
mapping exercise.
With input from Wellcome and DHSC, in March 2021 we conducted a stakeholder mapping exercise to understand who
these key stakeholders are, why they might be interested, how important their involvement is, and how to engage with
them in a way that can contribute to successful research uptake. Specifically, we conducted the stakeholder mapping
exercise to build a common understanding on significant stakeholders within the research uptake landscape and who
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