The CLARE Research for Impact (R4I) Hub is supporting the uptake of new and existing research to make it useful in new decision-making contexts that support local adaptation needs and priorities. With the support of local knowledge brokers, the R4I Hub is identifying short term opportunities to pull together existing research so that it can lead to action on the ground. In addition, the R4I Hub leads a community of practice within the CLARE programme, encouraging the sharing of learning and best practice on R4I amongst CLARE-funded research projects. CLARE’s Research for Impact (R4I) Hub is based at SouthSouthNorth, a climate NGO in Cape Town, South Africa, and it is part of the CLimate Adaptation and REsilience (CLARE) initiative, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

On 3 December the R4I Hub was officially launched at a COP28 side event hosted in the UK Pavillion.

Professor Charlotte Watts, UK FCDO Chief Scientific Advisor, noted:

“FCDO is a core supporter of CLARE, and has a longstanding partnership with IDRC. The research that CLARE conducts delivers real world impact – supporting ground breaking climate adaptation solutions for vulnerable communities and countries. The launch of the new Research for Impact Hub is an important addition – bringing more resources to support CLARE research partners around the world respond to the pressing demands from those driving action on the ground, such as policy makers, communities and practitioners, to build resilience against the impacts of climate change. »

The R4I Hub was established to support this drive for impact from the CLARE programme, by both supporting the portfolio of CLARE research projects whilst also facilitating the sharing and repurposing of past research investments made by the UK, Canada and others to bring this knowledge into further use in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Learning on how to achieve research for impact from these projects will be shared towards the end of the programme, wrapping up at the end of 2026.

Manuela Di Mauro and Bruce Curre-Alder, CLARE co-leads from FCDO and IDRC, highlighted that:

“by investing in the R4I Hub, CLARE is building on lessons from years of previous programming supporting climate change adaptation research. The R4I Hub will play a critical role in ensuring that the action-oriented research that the CLARE programme is supporting will uphold the Adaptation Research for Impact Principles, which have been endorsed by over 200 organizations around the world”.

SSN Director Shehnaaz Moosa reflected that:

“Our R4I Hub team all have prior experience with bringing climate knowledge into use and supporting learning through communities of practice, in particular building on our past role as coordinating unit for the UK funded Future Climate for Africa (FCFA) programme. SSN also leads the Climate Development and Knowledge Network (CDKN) which has been focused on knowledge to action approaches over the last decade”.

The R4I Hub will be supporting knowledge uptake through the CLARE R4I Opportunities Fund. These funding opportunities will be short term, small-scale interventions that support the needs of decision makers in Africa and Asia to adapt to climate change using existing research and evidence. Opportunities will be scoped directly with in-country stakeholders and draw on local expertise to enable the use of existing research and evidence in new and creative ways.  

R4I Hub Principal Investigator, Suzanne Carter shared:

“The R4I Hub Opportunities Fund is focused on knowledge uptake, figuring out the barriers to making research usable and addressing these with users. This approach maximises the value of past investments in research and allows for quicker responses to decision makers needs, equipping them with the best evidence available.”   

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The Climate Adaptation and Resilience (CLARE) programme is a £110m, UK-Canada framework research programme on Climate Adaptation and Resilience, aiming to enable socially inclusive and sustainable action to build resilience to climate change and natural hazards in Africa and Asia-Pacific. CLARE places significant emphasis on getting knowledge and evidence into use. CLARE is an action-orientated research programme, with each project in the CLARE portfolio designed to produce knowledge and actionable adaptation solutions and tools in collaboration with end users, that result in the uptake and use of new policies, approaches, and tools that increase the resilience of vulnerable communities. 

SouthSouthNorth (SSN) will serve as CLARE’s Research for Impact (R4I) Hub over the period May 2023 to October 2026. In this role, SSN will support CLARE project teams to strengthen their research for impact capability through a learning agenda on research for impact and synthesis of lessons. The main focus of the role is to build synergies with the cohort of in-country knowledge brokers to identify knowledge brokering opportunities to maximise the uptake of knowledge from CLARE and predecessor programmes.  Lastly SSN will look for opportunities to amplify the evidence and knowledge from CLARE in regional and international policy processes. ICLEI South Asia will be working closely with the SSN team as an external partner.  

The R4I Hub has four planned outcomes:  

1. Support research for impact of CLARE projects through cross-programme coordination and specific support and build capacity of projects on R4I approaches;    
2. Broker existing knowledge from CLARE and predecessor climate adaptation programmes through an opportunities fund that responds to national demands and makes use of entry points identified by in-country teams;  
3. Support CLARE learning on R4I and share emerging CLARE lessons; 
4. Amplify CLARE knowledge and evidence into high level policy processes. 

 CLARE is a joint initiative co-designed and funded by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)  and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).  The UK is the majority funder of the initiative, providing 85% of the ‘CLARE Research’ funding and funding CLARE Services and Partnerships. Canada provides 15% match-funding towards CLARE Research and is its main delivery partner. Both organisations work closely to set the strategic and technical directions of the initiative.