The Research into Use programme (RIUP) was a five year, £37 million programme funded by DFID’s Central Research Department.
It was designed to get the best research results from DFID’s past renewable natural resources research programmes into widespread use in Africa and South Asia. RIUP aimed to both maximise the poverty-reducing impact of the previous research and learn more about how research is taken up by different users.
Our role
DFID contracted us to review RIUP to assess its performance to date, recommend adjustments and help determine its the future direction and management.
We formed a team of six people with expertise in agricultural knowledge systems, M&E, impact assessment, survey design, research communications, agricultural research, and research management. We visited RIUP projects in Bangladesh and Nepal, and RIUP country programmes in Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. We reviewed RIU documentation, interviewed with a broad cross-section of RIU stakeholders, and commissioned a web survey of RIUP grant recipients.
Findings were presented to the RIUP Advisory Board in Tanzania and to DFID. After the review, DFID substantially revised the management arrangement for the programme introduced a stream of funding to invest in ‘best bets’.
Image © People_Itad