Completed In 1999, NRSP issued a call for research proposals addressing the ?knowledge gap between technology design and dissemination? in response to the perceived low uptake of new technologies in Ghana, Nepal, Brazil and Bolivia. The call assumed this gap was at least in part due to inadequate attention to promotion pathways and dissemination. At the same time, it asked for a critical review of technologies themselves to see if there were ?fundamental? reasons for this low uptake.
The two projects commissioned from this call and reviewed by this study (R7515 and R7516) both fulfilled most of the conditions set by the NRSP call. They addressed the question of accounting for the low uptake of technologies, they concentrated on conceptual thinking initially (especially R7515), and then developed some ?decision support tools? (DST) that aimed to reduce the gap between knowledge generation and dissemination.
The two projects developed decision support tools to encourage researchers to take better account of the heterogeneity of potential users. In both cases the tools had not been finalised by the end of the projects, so dissemination was limited to a series of workshops held to test and refine the products.
To track the uptake of research products from two Natural Resources Systems Programme (NRSP) funded projects designed to contribute to improved land use strategies in the Forest Agriculture Interface in Ghana. This study found that neither of the largely computer-based DSTs developed by R7515 and R7516 ? ?Interface? and ? Local knowledge and livelihoods: tools for soil research and dissemination in Ghana? ? were being used by researchers in Ghana. However, the study highlighted that much of the content of these DSTs remains useful and relevant and that the uptake of these ideas by natural scientists was perceived to be a need by both social scientists and policy-makers.
The study made a number of key recommendations concerned with the uptake of technology and developed ideas for further research projects.
The uptake and use of decision-support tools developed by R7515 and R7516 was tracked and analysed.
Assessments made of the strengths and weaknesses of the DSTs according to the views of key target institutions and individuals.
Recommendations were made for the enhanced uptake and promotion of the tools.