Scaling readiness: An approach to enhance R4D impact

Research to improve society can go to waste if these interventions are not made available to the beneficiaries. Murat Sartas, Marc Schut, Claudio Prioietti, Graham Thiele, and Cees Leeuwi—in a published journal paper titled Scaling readiness: Science and practice of an approach to enhance impact of research for development—charged researchers who aim to implement R4D interventions to incorporate scaling readiness factors right from the conceptualization phase of their innovation interventions.

Research to improve society can go to waste if these interventions are not made available to the beneficiaries. Murat Sartas, Marc Schut, Claudio Prioietti, Graham Thiele, and Cees Leeuwi—in a published journal paper titled Scaling readiness: Science and practice of an approach to enhance impact of research for development—charged researchers who aim to implement R4D interventions to incorporate scaling readiness factors right from the conceptualization phase of their innovation interventions.

Scaling is how new technologies, products, services, and improved practices receive acceptance and become part of our daily lives.

The success of an intervention depends on the availability and success of other core and subsidiary interventions related to it. For example, introducing a new cassava variety will depend simultaneously on upscaling complementary practices such as weeding, farm inputs, pesticides, and credit. And on a broader scale, an intervention in the agricultural sector may impact the health sector. Considering this interdependence, a tool to guide decisions on scaling interventions is necessary.

The authors developed a scaling readiness tool for innovation-based interventions. The tool assesses the readiness of innovations to achieve their intended impact and provides monitoring and evaluation strategies. The scaling readiness tool can also be used by donors to make informed decisions on which projects to invest.

The authors propose five key concepts relevant to scaling readiness. The first is content specific. This means an innovation is scalable in the specific context of its designed use, a one-size-fit-all approach will usually not work.

The second compares the current innovation with other related innovations, implying that innovations cannot be usefully scaled in isolation but should be seen as part of an innovation package. This package then becomes the unit of analysis for assessing scaling readiness. The third involves identifying the bottlenecks that could militate against the success of the intended intervention. The fourth identifies stakeholders who would work together with the team. And the fifth is monitoring and evaluation and making necessary adjustments.

In their scaling readiness tool, Schut and team transformed the technology readiness index developed by NASA (Parasuraman 2000; Sauser et al. 2008) and adopted by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union (European Commission 2014) into a scale for assessing the readiness of all types of R4D innovations. Based on these identified concepts, they proposed the five-cycle steps for scaling readiness indicated in the diagram below.