It was common for researchers to describe making multiple attempts to engage with end users and decision-makers, and to seek alternative avenues of engagement if they were not initially successful.
Most importantly, I and my colleagues, inside and outside government, will continue to listen and engage with end users – with the people it is our duty and privilege to help.
Another common limiting factor for adoption of DSS is a failure to engage with end users; yet from early days the WHEATMAN project had a high degree of extension agronomist and farmer input.
In addition, researchers from both groups described how they had used their professional and personal networks to engage with end users, before, during and after the research period.
For example, interactions between researchers and end users influence research utilisation; 1 18–23 and researchers' perceptions of their role may in turn influence whether or not they actively engage with end users.
On the other hand, there were examples among the no impact group in which the researchers reported only recently publishing their findings and only just beginning to engage with end users and decision-makers.
For example, some researchers reported that their non-significant effects meant they did not have anything to 'sell', and therefore limited their dissemination activities to traditional academic activities, such as publishing and attending conferences, rather than seeking out opportunities to engage with end users and decision-makers beyond those directly involved in their study.
This paper discusses a graphic design study where participants co-designed sustainable cleaning information, arguing that end-user participation in graphic design is complex, revealing paradoxes for designers engaging with end-users.
Therefore, it is critical to engage with end-users during development.
To best engage with end-users of the evidence (frontline clinical staff) we have built in two levels of facilitation in the implementation (between nurse-dietitian pairs and wards, and between the research team and the nurse-dietitian pairs).
This should make it easier and faster to string queries together and find simple answers to simple questions, and eventually, it could make it possible for search engines and other computing software to engage in even complex conversations with end users.
