Collaboration between practitioners and researchers is essential to produce the data that’s needed. This is especially appealing to younger academics. The need for collaborative partners is huge – what we don’t have [until now] is a 'marriage broker'.
-- Peter Jaszi, American University
It’s very difficult to get students connected to people on the ground. The incentives, such as immediate financial support for research and potential future jobs, tend to direct students to the corporate community. Creating incentives for student researchers to address the needs of the ordinary consumer/citizen, needs that might actually run counter to the goals of corporations, is an extraordinarily important role. The Necessary Knowledge program is taking significant steps to support academic institutions that want to fill that role.
-- Mark Lloyd, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
SSRC has a long history of bringing scholars with different interests together with practitioners and 'creating fields' – social science, and the arts and so on. SSRC’s neutral standing, high standards and reputation mean that it’s not held hostage to any particular interests and is able to maintain its independence.
-- Larry Gross, Annenberg School for Communication, USC
The Necessary Knowledge program is facilitating a movement. Thinking about research as collaborative, public-interest oriented work is increasingly common, especially among younger graduate students. We have taken several steps recently to provide more support for this kind of work, including the creation of a postdoc position in engaged scholarship.
-- Michael X. Delli Carpini, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication, UPenn
The collaborative approach is important – social change comes from working to mobilize to grow groups – these groups need the intelligence that research can provide. Academic research that supports this work is only as good as the scholars' connections with groups on the ground.
-- Dorothy Kidd, University of San Francisco
I've talked to a lot of Korean activists about the Necessary Knowledge program. I believe in this model for building movements' I've seen the role of base-building in making policy change, in elevating consciousness, in understanding realities, and what might be possible.
-- Hye-Jung Park, Media Justice Fund, Funding Exchange