One of the smartest ways for a university to raise its profile is to use what many already have in abundance—research. And the quickest, easiest way of publicising research is to do it through the university`s website. Surely, in terms of getting the biggest return on time and effort invested, this has to be the first and most obvious port of call for those whose job it is to publicise institutional activities.

What exactly is research uptake? A lot has been said and written about the concept, much of it by academics, and still it confounds people, even those whose everyday work is tied up with it. Late last year, we featured a series of blogs written by Jeff Knezovich about obstacles to research uptake, the first of which sets out what is meant when we talk about research uptake, explaining also how the concept has evolved over the years. The name may be relatively new,

Successful Research Uptake depends on a whole range of engagement strategies on the part of the university. To bring research outputs outside the academic sector and into communities where they can have direct development impact, universities need to be able to work with mass media outlets to disseminate findings and to raise awareness about research activities.