Innovation grants at INASP: working across teams to increase use of online research literature

In the recently announced “Innovation grant for using online research literature” we have been able to bring the various components of INASP’s programmes together. In designing and developing these grants, members of four strands of INASP’s activities – Research Access and Higher Education, AuthorAID, Evidence Informed Policy Making and our Communications team – came together to discuss possible barriers to the use of online literature, as they affect each core stakeholder group – librarians, researchers, academics and policymakers.

Access to online research literature underpins many INASP activities – researchers need access to these resources to prepare high-quality papers, and policymakers can use evidence from online resources to develop their policies. Researchers and policymakers, along with academics, lecturers and librarians, are all eligible to apply for a grant to support a project that includes an innovative idea of how to increase online research literature usage while also achieving a research, policy or teaching goal.

We realized that, while there are core issues affecting the usage of online resources, there are different ways in which each group might address them, and that we (and they) could learn from each other. A cross-programme team will be reviewing the applications as they come in, which not only gives balanced appraisal of the applications but allows INASP staff to share their expertise internally further as well. This cross-fertilization across the INASP teams is valuable and, while it has always been done informally, we will use this opportunity to see how one activity can be used to reach the full range of INASP stakeholders.

Anne Powell
Anne Powell is Programme Specialist, Convening at INASP.

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