The challenge of bridging the gap between researchers and policy makers: experiences of a Health Policy Research Group in engaging policy makers to support evidence informed policy making in Nigeria.
Getting research into policy and practice (GRIPP) is a process of going from research evidence to decisions and action. To integrate research findings into the policy making process and to communicate research findings to policymakers is a key challenge world-wide. This paper reports the experiences of a research group in a Nigerian university when seeking to 'do' GRIPP, and the important features and challenges of this process within the African context.



In-depth interviews were conducted with nine purposively selected policy makers in various organizations and six researchers from the universities and research institute in a Nigerian who had been involved in 15 selected joint studies/projects with Health Policy Research Group (HPRG). The interviews explored their understanding and experience of the methods and processes used by the HPRG to generate research questions and research results; their involvement in the process and whether the methods were perceived as effective in relation to influencing policy and practice and factors that influenced the uptake of research results.



The results are represented in a model with the four GRIPP strategies found: i) stakeholders' request for evidence to support the use of certain strategies or to scale up health interventions; ii) policymakers and stakeholders seeking evidence from researchers; iii) involving stakeholders in designing research objectives and throughout the research process; and iv) facilitating policy maker-researcher engagement in finding best ways of using research findings to influence policy and practice and to actively disseminate research findings to relevant stakeholders and policymakers. The challenges to research utilization in health policy found were to address the capacity of policy makers to demand and to uptake research, the communication gap between researchers, donors and policymakers, the management of the political process of GRIPP, the lack of willingness of some policy makers to use research, the limited research funding and the resistance to change.



Country based Health Policy and Systems Research groups can influence domestic policy makers if appropriate strategies are employed. The model presented gives some direction to potential strategies for getting research into policy and practice in the health care sector in Nigeria and elsewhere.
Department of Community Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria. bscuzochukwu@gmail.com.|Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria. bscuzochukwu@gmail.com.|Department of Health Administration and Management, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria. bscuzochukwu@gmail.com.
Benjamin
0000-0002-0794-0455
B
Uzochukwu
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.|Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.|Department of Health Administration and Management, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.
Obinna
O
Onwujekwe
Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.
Chinyere
C
Mbachu
Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.
Chinenye
C
Okwuosa
Health Policy Research Group, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.|Department of Health Administration and Management, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu-campus, Nigeria.
Enyi
E
Etiaba
Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME), Karolinska Institutet, 171 77, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå university, 901 87, Umeå, Sweden.
Monica E
ME
Nyström
Health Policy and Systems Division, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
Lucy
L
Gilson
D000288:Administrative Personnel / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006291:Health Policy / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D009549:Nigeria; D011050:Policy Making; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*
Getting research into policy and practice; Nigeria