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Knowledge4Policy
Knowledge for policy
Supporting policy with scientific evidence

We mobilise people and resources to create, curate, make sense of and use knowledge to inform policymaking across Europe.

  • Publication | 2018
Knowledge4Policy: Audience Research

Audience research to inform the design of the new Knowledge for Policy web platform.

Evidence-Informed Policy Making
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Conducted between December 2017 - April 2018, this audience research was commissioned by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre to inform the design of the new Knowledge for Policy web platform.

The Knowledge4Policy platform was launched in 'beta' mode in May 2018, with this audience research underpinning the design of its 'post-Beta' development. Its goals were therefore to: 

  • understand how key audiences interact with knowledge and incorporate it into their work;
  • understand how a digital web platform could support some of these practices and needs; 
  • engage knowledge services and their audiences in the iterative process of the web platform’s design; 
  • thus supporting web platform development in the post-launch phase.

The research involved four interlinked methodologies: Desk research, Ethnographic interviews, an online Survey and three Focus groups.

These informed each other - a comparison between the initial survey results and the insights gained from the ethnographic interviews, for example, led to changes in focus group design.

More: this audience research has been covered in several posts on the Knowledge4Policy Publication on the Medium platform.