Making research policy-ready: how institutions can support think tanks and SDG impact

Author: Deidre Hudson Reuss

Senior Marketing Manager

Connecting research to real‑world policy outcomes is becoming a strategic priority for institutions that support and disseminate scholarly knowledge. Institutions are increasingly expected to demonstrate how the research they fund, publish, or manage contributes to national and global priorities, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet much of that impact depends on what happens after research is produced: how easily it can be found, interpreted, and applied by policy actors. Connecting research to real‑world policy outcomes is becoming a strategic priority for institutions that support and disseminate scholarly knowledge. Institutions are increasingly expected to demonstrate how the research they fund, publish, or manage contributes to national and global priorities, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet much of that impact depends on what happens after research is produced: how easily it can be found, interpreted, and applied by policy actors.

In The publication‑to‑policy connection: Supporting the real‑world impact of research, we explored how evidence moves through policy ecosystems, highlighting the critical role played by intermediary organisations in translating research into use. More recently, What can institutions learn from a systems approach to sustainability transformation? examined how integrated data, collaboration, and aligned financing are needed to move beyond policy influence towards coordinated SDG action.

Our 2025 SDG Impact Report identified one key group that consistently sits at the centre of this translation process: think tanks. These organisations are among the most active users of scholarly literature in the policy ecosystem, synthesising research into insights that governments and international agencies rely on. Understanding how they work, and what they need from research, provides institutions with a powerful lens on how to boost visibility, usability, and policy influence.

This case study follows that process in practice through the work of a leading think tank, adelphi, showing how evidence moves from research to policy and what institutions can do to ensure their research is policy‑ready and positioned for maximum real‑world SDG impact.

How the SDGs shape policy priorities and funding

André Müller is Senior Advisor in Water and Biodiversity at adelphi, a German think tank and public policy consultancy focused on climate, environment, and development.

For André, “the SDGs are the overarching framework for almost everything we do in development cooperation.” This framework also shapes how national priorities are set and funded: “Since the SDGs are the overarching framework guiding Official Development Assistance (ODA), government aid that promotes the economic development and welfare of developing countries, the topics represented in them are those that receive funding and are mainstreamed into national policies,” he explains.

His work focuses on sustainable water management, freshwater ecosystem conservation, and climate adaptation, often in transboundary governance projects. “SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) is definitely the most central to my work, but because water is such a cross-cutting issue, I often deal with other SDGs too, especially those related to biodiversity (SDG 15: Life on Land) and climate (SDG 13: Climate Action). Our work frequently analyses how solutions can deliver co-benefits across several sectors, SDGs, and other global policy frameworks.”

How think tanks use research every day

Our 2025 report found that think tanks, international organisations, and NGOs are the policy actors most likely to cite scholarly research. They also produce and publish their own studies, synthesising evidence into policy recommendations that are frequently cited by other types of policymakers. This points to a distinct role for these organisations as knowledge brokers, translating research in ways that can influence policymaking across multiple arenas.

For André, this science-to-policy-practice is simply part of the job: “This process is really our everyday business,” he explains. “We use primary research, synthesise the results, and communicate them to different audiences in ways that suit their needs, this might mean simplifying the language, focusing on specific findings, or turning research into actionable recommendations.”

Research underpins almost every aspect of his work. “I use research every day, my job wouldn’t be possible without it. I write studies, policy papers, and briefs, and we develop technical assessments for the state of rivers or wetlands, as well as management plans for river basins or give trainings on financing wetland protection.”

For research institutions, this has important implications: how research is accessed, discovered, and presented can directly shape its ability to inform policy. “All these activities depend on solid evidence and research,” explains André. “I also conduct research myself, generating new knowledge as a social scientist, for example, through expert interviews or focus groups. This applied research is always closely linked to practical challenges in the field.”

This intermediary role is particularly visible in Germany, where Ministries typically fund implementing agencies, which then contract think tanks and NGOs to deliver evidence-based inputs: “These agencies rarely deliver projects directly,” says André; “They contract think tanks like adelphi, or other organisations, to write policy briefs, develop strategies, or deliver capacity-building trainings.”

How evidence moves from research to policy

A recent example is a project André led for Germany’s main development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, in preparation for the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP 15) in Montreal and the United Nations 2023 Water Conference in New York, focused on strengthening the role of freshwater ecosystems in German development cooperation.

“We developed four factsheets, each focused-on SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and its subgoals related to freshwater ecosystems, demonstrating links to other SDGs. We analysed biophysical connections, policy links, and co-benefits, and provided recommendations for strengthening these ties. We also produced a comprehensive policy paper exploring how German development actors can lead global efforts to better protect and restore freshwater ecosystems.”

Rather than producing new academic research alone, the emphasis was on translation, integration, and timing, ensuring that evidence entered policy discussions at moments when it could shape agendas. Thanks to sustained efforts like these, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework now includes explicit goals and indicators for freshwater ecosystems previously underrepresented in global biodiversity frameworks.

Why timing matters in policy influence

The SDGs have become a powerful lens for understanding and addressing society’s most urgent challenges, including access to clean water. While these issues were active areas of research long before the SDGs were introduced in 2015, André’s experience is that the Goals have helped align evidence, funding, and policy priorities.

“NGOs and think tanks have worked hard to build the evidence base needed to raise the profile of freshwater ecosystems in these policies and their associated indicators.”

This alignment increases the demand for timely access to credible, interdisciplinary research across multiple SDGs and subject areas, particularly in the context of global cuts to development budgets: “It’s more important than ever to implement solutions that pay off for multiple SDGs. Nature-based solutions are a great example here: restoring peatlands supports biodiversity, maintains healthy water cycles, helps with drought resilience, stores carbon, and benefits local livelihoods such as fishing and hunting. There are many other freshwater-related solutions with win-wins for multiple SDGs.”

Why research impact in policy is difficult to measure

Despite the emphasis on evidence-based policymaking, André is candid about how difficult impact can be in practice: “There’s a lot of discussion and activity around policymaking, but from my experience, actually influencing policy through research is quite challenging. If you want your research to have a real impact on policy, it takes a lot of experience and a strong network to know how to make that happen.”

This raises important questions about how impact is tracked, and how it could be strengthened: “We should get better at tracking whether our work actually makes a difference, and at improving our strategies for making that impact happen.”

For institutions, this highlights that impact is not only about availability, but about usability and reach across different audiences. This echoes the UN’s call for science to contribute to sustainable development through action, not just theory. The UNESCO’s 2016 Science for Sustainable Development policy brief emphasised closer alignment between science and policy through partnerships across government, business, and civil society.

Where institutions can strengthen research-to-policy pathways

Our report identifies several ways that institutions can strengthen this research-to-policy pathway by supporting think tanks in their intermediary role:

Institutional repositories should consider:

• Improving the accessibility of research through open access, making it easier for think tanks to engage with evidence, particularly in fast-moving policy contexts
• Using SDG-aligned tagging, metadata, and thematic curation to help surface relevant research more effectively

Librarians and knowledge managers can support think tanks by:

• Supporting research synthesis and review content, which is disproportionately cited in policy
• Helping users navigate bodies of evidence that cut across disciplines and SDGs

Research offices and funders can improve policy relevance by:

• Supporting outputs that are usable beyond academia, including synthesis and applied research
• Encouraging research that is closely linked to practical challenges in the field

Across all institutions, creating opportunities for closer dialogue between researchers, think tanks, and policymakers is essential, for example through institutional partnerships, events, and programmes such as Science for a Sustainable Future.

What’s next for research impact in policy?

As the 2030 target for the Sustainable Development Goals approaches, the need for evidence-informed policymaking will only intensify. Governments, funders, and international organisations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate progress, making the effective use of research more important than ever.

This case study highlights how that process works in practice. Research does not move directly from publication to policy. Instead, it is interpreted, synthesised, and applied by intermediary organisations such as think tanks, which play a critical role in shaping how evidence is used in decision-making.

Think tanks will continue to play a central role in this ecosystem, but they cannot operate in isolation. Stronger collaboration between research institutions, think tanks, and policymakers will be essential to ensure that evidence is not only produced, but actively used to shape decisions.

For institutions, this highlights the importance of moving beyond access alone to ensure research is positioned, discovered, and applied to strengthen its contribution to evidence-informed SDG policy. Explore the full findings in our SDG Impact Report: From publications to policy.

About André Müller

André Müller works as a Senior Advisor at adelphi, specialising in sustainable water resources management and biodiversity conservation. He sees an urgent need to drastically lower the growing pressures from human actions and a warming climate on water resources and the ecosystems that provide them. Thus, he dedicates his work to projects that spearhead a sustainable, climate-resilient water management approach.

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• Publishing SDG research: Initiatives that support your institution’s efforts

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