Ideas on How to Summarise Research Insights for Innovation and Research Ecosystem Stakeholders

The below resource has been co-created with UKRI, Innovate UK and ESRC and is designed to give you some ideas on how to summarise your research insights in 1-2 pages. This format could be used in a presentation or policy brief.

There is guidance on the level of detail and types of topics that may be most useful and relevant to a wide range of policymakers, research and innovation ecosystem actors. 

Language: Assume no prior knowledge; use simple language – no technical jargon, relevant to the broadest possible range of policymakers and other research and innovation ecosystem actors.  

Word limit: 500 words maximum. Around half of the content should be focused on the findings and discussion sections. The summary can be 1-2 pages in length, with one page preferred where possible. 

Sections   

The points in each section below are potential topics you may choose to cover. There is no expectation to address all of these sub-points; choose those that are most appropriate and interesting to your audience. 

Overview/Summary Box (10 %)  

• Focus on a few key, interesting points from your findings/discussion that are relevant to your target audiences. You will have an idea of what these are through the process of co-creating your output or through existing stakeholder links (limit this section to a few sentences). 

Purpose – What does the research aim to address? (keep it short) For example: (15- 20 %) 

• What was the knowledge gap/problem your research looked at?   

• Why is this research important?   

• Problem and methodology/design (how the research was done):  What was the approach (method/design; keep very brief)? Why is it new or innovative? Keep information to a bare minimum. This may be of interest to analysts who will want to understand how the research was done before engaging further.   

Findings – What were the main findings? For example: (35%) 

• What are the headline results, and what do they mean? Are there any sub-findings/nuances?  

• So what/What do the results mean?  

• What do they say about the challenge/gap? Any key assumptions or limitations?   

Discussion – How could the findings be used? / Implications of findings. For example: (35 %) 

• What is the policy/societal/commercial relevance?   

• Now what? /Practical applications/Implications.  

• How could it be used? Who could practically implement your research’s recommendations? Are there any further questions raised by your findings?                          

Find out more: link to your report  

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