How does access to research evidence influence policymakers’ use of evidence in health policy?

Policy decisions are influenced by many factors. These include the policy issue, policy context, organisational factors, policymaker factors and the availability of relevant and credible research evidence. Living evidence is a recently developed approach to synthesising and packaging relevant evidence so that it can be easily used by policymakers, clinicians and other health decision makers. It is used increasingly amongst governments to ensure that decision-makers have up to date research evidence when they need it. But as this is a new approach, there is much to learn about how to optimise its use for policy, including how the living evidence approach influences policymakers’ access to evidence. This project will use qualitative methods to investigate when and how living evidence can increase health policymakers’ access to research evidence, and describe the impact of increased access on policymakers’ use of evidence. The study will produce a conceptual framework of factors that drive access to research evidence for policy.