Page 1: WTSR Pre-Workshop Survey
Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. It has been designed so that you can share
your views on the research communication system in your country, so that these can feed into the two
day workshop that is coming up soon.
Please note that your personal information is handled with the utmost care within INASP and will not
be shared with a third party. For reporting purposes we might use anonymized data or quotes.
Page 2: About you
Q1. Location of workshop:
Q2. Date of workshop:
Q3. First name:
Q4. Family name/surname:
Q5. Primary email address:
Q6. Secondary email address:
Q7. Telephone number (mobile preferred):
Page 3: How will we work together?
The forthcoming meeting will bring together a wide range of experts who will work together to
develop a practical plan for working together to support research.
Q8. What do you think are the 10 most important ground rules for this meeting?

Come prepared and ready to contribute

Cell phones off

Cell phones on silent

Staying on schedule is everyone’s responsibility: honour time limits

Be positive, non-judgmental and open to new ideas

Allow every voice to be heard

Respect others’ points of view

Stay on topic

Critique ideas, not people

Question assumptions

Silence means agreement

Confidential issues remain in the room

Other (please specify)
Page 4: What will the meeting focus on?
A research communication system could be seen as an interdependent set of people and processes,
working together to:

better understand the world we live in;

improve the lives of others by finding solutions and innovations that address social,
economic and environmental problems.
The forthcoming meeting is a facilitated expert discussion to consider how the national research
communication system could be improved. Core to this discussion is the initial broad problem
statement.
"A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved." [Charles Kettering]
A good problem statement should focus on one problem, be concise, and not include any indication
of the cause of the problem or what actions will be taken to solve the problem.
We are asking all participants to share their initial thoughts on the issues, and these will be collated
into a shared problem statement, to be discussed and then agreed at the start of the meeting.
Please complete the questions on the next page in order to outline your view of the core problem
that the meeting should address.
Page 5: If everything was working perfectly….
Please give as many ideas and be as specific as you can for each question.
If the national research communication system in worked perfectly:
Q9. What benefits would that bring?
Q10.
Who would be involved? (Please try to include specific groups, organisations,
stakeholders, etc.)
Q11.
What would they be doing?
Q12.
Where would that be happening?
Q13.
When would that be happening?
Page 6: The current situation….
Please give as many ideas and be as specific as you can for each question.
Currently the national research communication system doesn’t work perfectly:
Q14.
Who does this affect?
Q15.
What does it affect?
Q16.
When does the issue occur?
Q17.
What impact is this causing?
Q18.
What would happen if we didn’t solve the problem?
Q19.
When does it need to be fixed?
Q20.
Where is the issue occurring?
Q21.
Why is it important that we fix the problem?
Page 7: Thank you
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. The facilitators will use the answers to
develop a draft problem statement which will be reviewed and discussed at the beginning of the
meeting.