Engaging New Audiences: A Guide for Think Tanks

Think Tanks are skilled at writing academic papers, drafting research reports and publishing policy briefs, but often their findings do not move beyond the policy space, missing opportunities to challenge prevailing discourses and practices by engaging new audiences in social and political issues. It can be difficult to understand how to engage new and diverse audiences in research especially if they do not already understand the issues or if there are multiple perspectives. Before attempting to communicate with specific audiences it is important to have worked out why you are engaging them and what you want to achieve from this engagement. Think Tank research can make a strong contribution to social and economic impact as well as to academic impact. The UK Research Council defines academic impact as the “contribution that excellent social and economic research makes to scientific advances, across and within disciplines, including significant advances in understanding, method, theory and application.” They define economic and societal impact as the “contribution that excellent social and economic research makes to society and the economy, of benefit to individuals, organisations and nations.” This guide is not focused on supporting theoretical and scientific advances, rather, it focuses on supporting Think Tank researchers to achieve social and economic impact by engaging new audiences in their research.