Conducting the Research Communications and Uptake Survey provided a fascinating insight into the current ‘state of play’ between what people think they know and what they would like to know more of. This survey was conducted during the first two weeks of September 2011.

The most popularly cited step of communicating research was through “presentations (at conferences, within organisations etc.)” (84.3%). The next highest step was to “Attend and facilitate workshops” (75.5%), then via “websites” (74.5%) and through “face-to-face communications with relevant audiences” (73.5%). All of these steps were above 70%, and as such can be identified as the most popular means to communicate research. The virtues of blogging and micro blogging as a means of effectively communicating research and building engagement with research projects has been discussed widely, and there are a number of strong arguments for encouraging researchers do more of it.