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Shifting toward healthy and sustainable diets: How to optimise evidence use for policy and practice

Appendix A: Generation Mechanisms table

This is a table of common ways to generate evidence, including associated challenges, benefits and applicability to different participant groups.

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Rows are marked to signify effective, non-effective, partially-effective or undetermined (based on available literature).

Table 7 Mechanisms for Evidence Generation

Mechanism Generation type/Description Challenges Benefits Target audience Effectiveness
Calls for evidence (partially effective) Pull: public call for evidence, often by a government entity, on a particular salient topic/issue (footnote 1) Clarity; relevance to terms of reference Formal, direct engagement with policymakers Policymakers; decision-maker practitioners Moderately effective; require more strategic planning of purposes and goals.
Deliberation platforms (effective) Co-creation: “a mechanism through which stakeholders with diverse perspectives can both discuss problems and explore potential solutions” for a political issue (footnote 2) Scale and context;
Participant diversity and representation;
Bias (participants and facilitator);
Clarity and transparency;
Engagement		 Fosters mutual understanding; Crosses sectors and disciplines; Encourages social learning;
Collaborative engagement		 Policymakers; researchers, practitioners Effective when specific conditions are met: 1) long-term perspective;
2) mutualistic/ collaborative
Funded Commissions (effective) Pull: research funded directly by government bodies or other funders, focused on a specific topic or need Navigating politics,
Time capacity,
Coverage,
Credibility,
Scale and context		 Funded;
Direct engagement with policymakers/ practitioners		 Government bodies, Industry, Third sector, NGOs Effective for both short- and long-term policy decisions
Professional Partnerships (effective) Co-creation: “policy/ practice- research collaborations, usually with a limited lifespan” (footnote 3) (footnote 4)  (i.e. expert elicitation, committees, networks, Areas of Research Interest, etc.) Scale and context,
Navigating politics,
Long-term impact		 Often funded;
Direct engagement with policymakers/ practitioners; Fosters mutual understanding		 Researchers and policymakers/practitioners Highly effective under specific conditions: 1) funded, 
2) long-term perspective, 
3) mutualistic/ collaborative in nature
Training and fellowships (undetermined) Co-creation: formal skills development scheme, often funded (i.e. skills training), secondments, internships, fellowships.  Engagement,
Unpredictable knowledge base, Clarity, Comprehension		 Direct engagement,
Capacity-building,
Potentially funded		 Researchers and policymakers/practitioners Unclear/mixed/unavailable evidence on effectiveness.

Source: Authors informed by Warira et al. (2017), Ferrari, M. (2017) and Gerard, Koch & Kowarsch (2018)

  1. Breckon, J. and Dodson, J. (2016) ‘Using evidence: What works? A discussion paper,’ Alliance for Useful Evidence. Available at: https://media.nesta.org.uk/documents/using_evidence_what_works.pdf

  2. Garard, J., Koch, L. and Kowarsch, M. (2018) ‘Elements of success in multi-stakeholder deliberation platforms,’ Palgrave Communications, 4(129). Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0183-8

  3. Sources: Parsons, K. and Barling, D. (2021). Food Systems Transformation - What’s in the Policy Toolbox?. A Report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme.  Available at: https://www.foodsecurity.ac.uk/research/foodsystems-spf/outputs/; OECD (2021a) ‘Making better policies for food systems: Executive summary,’ OECD iLibrary, Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/ddfba4de-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/ddfba4de-en

  4. Sasse, T. and Haddon, C. (2018) ‘How government can work with academia,’ Institute for Government. Available at: https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2018-06/apo-nid248641.pdf
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