Convenings:
Sharing research evidence and incubating new research agendas

In-person convenings can increase the effectiveness of efforts to communicate research evidence to stakeholders, and can also support the incubation of promising new research agendas.

Recent research indicates that sharing the findings from rigorous evaluations of new policy solutions with policy makers at in-person convenings increases the likelihood that effective solutions are implemented at scale (Hjort et al 2021). Research on collaboration reveals that in-person convenings also provide important opportunities for potential collaborators to build new working relationships. For example, attendees at in-person convenings are more likely to develop research collaborations with each other than with otherwise similar researchers who did not attend the convenings (Chai and Freeman 2019, Campos, Leon, and McQuillin 2019). Attendees at in-person conferences are also more likely to develop research collaborations with each other if they spend more time interacting at the convenings (Boudreau et al 2017, Zajdela et al 2022).

Many of the Social Science Research Council’s programs host in-person convenings that enable researchers to share evidence with stakeholders. In addition, the Council also hosts convening-based programs dedicated to incubating researcher and stakeholder collaboration on promising new research agendas.