Authors:  Lauren Supplee PhD & Anika Zaman PhD
Editors: Katie Wyant-Stein PhD & Taylor Scott PhD

Researchers often approach policymakers or practitioners after a study is complete, sharing findings with the expectation that rigorous evidence will naturally inform decisions. Dr. Lauren Supplee, former Director of the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, has seen that approach fall short time and again. It is not because the research lacked quality, but because it wasn’t developed around the questions decision-makers were trying to answer.

For Supplee, creating research impact begins much earlier. Rather than asking how to communicate studies more effectively, she encourages researchers to start by building partnerships and asking different questions: What questions do you have? What are you struggling with? What would actually be helpful?

Those conversations shift research from a process of dissemination to one of partnership, where policymakers, practitioners, and communities help shape the questions, priorities, and evidence from the very beginning.

Partnership Starts Before Methodology 

One of the biggest barriers to research impact isn’t dissemination. It’s timing. Researchers often invest years answering questions that matter scientifically, only to find that the policymakers and practitioners they hope to influence are facing different challenges by the time the findings are published.

Supplee believes researchers should begin by building partnerships, not studies. The first step is understanding the challenges decision-makers are trying to solve, the questions they need answered, and the information that would help them make better decisions. Those conversations don’t just inform dissemination plans. They shape the research itself, influencing the questions that are asked, the studies that are designed, and even the measures that are collected.

During her tenure at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Supplee’s team partnered with program leaders to develop “learning agendas” that organized questions into short-, medium-, and long-term priorities. Some questions could be answered using existing data, while others informed new analyses or entirely new research projects. Throughout the process, partners helped shape priorities while researchers maintained independence over study design and analysis.

The value of this approach extends beyond asking better research questions. When partners help define the work from the beginning, they develop a sense of ownership in both the process and the findings. Rather than viewing research as something done to them, they become collaborators invested in ensuring the work answers meaningful questions. That shared ownership makes it more likely the evidence will be trusted, used, and carried forward long after the study is complete.

This principle guides our work at TrestleLink as well. We have found that research translation is most effective when engagement begins early, continues throughout the research lifecycle, and treats intended users as collaborators rather than audiences. By helping researchers build partnerships from the outset, we work to create evidence that is not only rigorous, but also relevant, trusted, and actionable.

Trust Turns Research Into Action 

Trust doesn’t come from a single meeting or study. It develops over time through repeated interactions that show researchers understand partners’ challenges, respond to their needs, and are transparent about what can realistically be accomplished.

Supplee shared how her team rebuilt a strained relationship with a federal program office that had felt excluded from an earlier evaluation. Instead of launching another study, they spent more than a decade listening, working alongside program staff, redesigning performance measures, and creating tools that partners could use themselves. As the evidence became more useful to day-to-day decision-making, data quality improved, collaboration strengthened, and research became embedded in program operations.

She saw a similar transformation with tribal communities. Early in her tenure, she was told that tribal communities “would never do research.” Rather than accepting that assumption, her team focused on understanding why previous partnerships had broken down and how they could be rebuilt. Over time, those relationships became strong enough that tribal organizations publicly advocated for protecting the office’s research partnerships. Their support demonstrated how trust had transformed research from something viewed as extractive into a valued resource. 

These experiences reinforce a central lesson: rigorous evidence matters, but relationships often determine whether that evidence is ultimately used.

Building those relationships, however, requires skills that extend beyond research methods. If meaningful partnerships are essential to research impact, researchers need preparation that goes beyond designing studies and analyzing data.

Supplee argues that graduate programs excel at teaching scientific methods but often leave researchers underprepared to engage across sectors, communicate with nonacademic audiences, navigate disagreement, and build lasting partnerships. For researchers pursuing policy- or practice-engaged careers, these capabilities are not simply professional development. They are essential to creating research that people trust and use.

That is why Supplee encourages graduate students and early-career researchers to seek experiences beyond academia, whether by working with nonprofit organizations or government agencies, helping analyze data, or presenting at practitioner conferences. Those experiences expose researchers to different decision-making environments while developing the listening, adaptability, and relationship-building skills that classrooms alone cannot teach.

At TrestleLink, we see these skills as fundamental to translating research into action. Alongside supporting researchers and organizations with stakeholder engagement and cross-sector collaboration, we work to prepare the next generation of policy- and practice-engaged researchers through graduate training that builds the communication, partnership, and engagement skills needed to create research that is relevant, trusted, and actionable.

Beyond Dissemination 

Rigorous methods will always be the foundation of good research. But rigor alone doesn’t determine whether evidence changes policy, improves practice, or benefits communities.

Partnership does.

When researchers involve policymakers, practitioners, and communities from the outset, they don’t just increase the chances that evidence will be used. They create research that is better aligned with real-world challenges and better positioned to make a difference.

Research doesn’t create impact because it’s published. It creates impact because people trust it, value it, and see it as helping solve the problems they face.