Kudos, the award-winning service for accelerating research impact through strategic communications management, has today announced the foundation partners for its Bridging the Divide research project, which will identify critical areas in which researchers need better support for engaging with collaborators and audiences beyond academia.
The project’s first headline sponsor is the International Centre for the Study of Research (icsr.net), a new initiative launched by Elsevier to facilitate progress in operationalizing definitions of, and metrics for, societal impact. The Centre’s Advisory Board comprises an international group of academics whose diverse experiences of research cultures will provide a valuable foundation on which Bridging the Divide can build.
“Our headline sponsors not only get top billing when we publish and present results – they also have an opportunity to help define the scope and direction of the research,” explains Charlie Rapple, Chief Customer Officer at Kudos. “Therefore we’re particularly excited to be tapping into the ICSR’s expertise in relation to research funding, processes, audiences and evaluation – all key areas for this project to explore.”
Contributing and participating sponsors include the American Society of Microbiology, Brill and Royal Society of Chemistry. “A research study of this nature is one example of where working collaboratively with other publishers and research organizations has huge benefits for us,” adds Melissa Junior, Director, ASM Journals at the American Society of Microbiology. “By partnering, through Kudos, we can reach a bigger audience, use a broader range of research mechanisms, undertake more complex analysis, and create a stronger set of results and recommendations than we can do with our own in-house resource.”
“I’m delighted by the diversity of the partners who have already committed to reporting this project,” Charlie continues. “With previous projects, we have been able to build substantial datasets from which we’ve been able to draw a range of practical, valuable recommendations for how publishers can evolve to better support researchers’ emerging needs. Having partners from around the world, and with different strengths, will ensure that we are able to replicate that success with Bridging the Divide.”
Some sponsor seats are still available; potential project partners are invited to register their interest as soon as possible by contacting colin.caveney@growkudos.com.
