As one of the founders of Kudos, I often get asked about what inspired us to devote years to researching and developing tools to help people communicate research. I can answer this question in two ways: qualitatively, with a passionate explanation of the importance of wider awareness, understanding and application of research – or quantitively, by sharing some of the data we have gathered about the things that researchers struggle with, and the tools they wish they had to help them. Here are 3 key takeaways from a survey we carried out in 2018, with over 6,000 researcher respondents:
1. Researchers spend a substantial proportion of their time and funding on dissemination and impact – 35% are spending half a day a week or more on dissemination information about their research, while almost a quarter are spending 4% or more of their funding on dissemination and impact activities (excluding publication).
2. Funders encourage that researchers undertake dissemination but provide limited support for this; researchers do their own dissemination with very little support from others.
3. Researchers use a wide range of tools to disseminate their work and are broadening out beyond traditional activities such as presenting papers at conferences. To date, researchers typically have not had dedicated software to help them manage communication activities, tools and results.
What we did next!
This data helped to inspire and shape the development of Kudos Pro, a new platform designed to help researchers plan, manage and optimize communications around their research. We want to make research communications more efficient and effective, in terms of achieving the maximum possible reach and impact with the minimum possible effort and expenditure. Many thanks to all the researchers who've participated in our surveys to help us understand the problems we need to solve! Kudos Pro has now launched and you can find out more, or arrange your demo, here.
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