Research in Action: Fast, Far, and for All

Development economics knowledge is expanding fast - but much of it isn’t reaching the people who could use it most. Researchers struggle to amplify their insights beyond academic audiences; end users – a diverse group in its own right - face information overload, language barriers, and low contextual relevance. Think tanks, academics, and partner institutions lack coordinated ways to share or co-create evidence.

At the World Bank Group Institute for Economic Development (IED), our theory of change begins with people and ends with people. We operate in four steps: 1) we curate research, 2) we connect communities, 3) we tailor knowledge as an experience, and 4) we measure and adapt. These principles and goals keep us focused on building networks that link researchers, policymakers, and partners so that insights can move freely and meaningfully across contexts.

How do we cook these together?

• Human centered: We design knowledge experiences to match people’s needs, skills, and journey, maximizing both engagement and real-world application.
• Tech powered: We use technology to organize, translate, and amplify research and knowledge. We offer tools that let people explore, summarize, and apply research across languages and contexts, ensuring knowledge not only reaches its audience but resonates in meaningful ways.
• Evidence driven: We evaluate and follow feedback loops in close partnership with the World Bank Development Impact Department. This allows us to see in real time what works, and use that to make adjustments, dropping what does not work, refining our offerings, tools, and formats to improve real-world application.

What does a tailored knowledge experience look like?

Not long ago, if you were interested in the latest World Development Report on the Middle-Income Trap, you would probably visit the World Bank Group website, scroll through and open a long PDF or two, and work your way through it. You can still do that if you like, but now there are more ways to do that.

For traditional users, you can still click, download, and read the report as always. But we’ve sprinkled some useful extras in the experience: interactive summaries, visual highlights, and flashcards that make the reports’ ideas easier to digest. The “Chat with the Report” option lets people ask questions and receive quick, trustworthy responses drawn from the report using AVA, our AI research assistant tool. It’s the same depth of knowledge, but with a more dynamic and personalized interface that brings the material to life and tailored to the user’s style and needs.

Join our virtual community which brings research to life through collaborative, user-centered interactions. We co-develop learning materials with researchers and, together with the Data Academy and our IED training partners, encourage them to share their insights through high-quality, practice-oriented training. The platform uses AI to support course design and delivery, making it easier to bring rigorous content to more users, more efficiently. Learners engage through interactive videos, podcasts, discussions, peer-reviewed exercises, and self-reflection activities — an immersive experience that helps them turn knowledge into practical skills.

Subscribe to the Accelerating Development - Ideas for Impact podcast, an AI-powered, expert-led podcast series, which turns the latest research insights into an engaging conversation. The podcast series is available in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Chinese and Hindi.

Partner and co-create with us: Technology can open the door, but people and partnerships make knowledge move. Through initiatives like the Africa Growth and Opportunity: Research in Action (AGORA), the Institute brings researchers, policymakers, and partners together to create regional dialogues and hands-on workshops that connect global evidence with local insights. These partnerships also activate and amplify LEADS (Learn–Adapt–Scale) — the World Bank Development Impact Department’s model for turning evidence into real-world change. Through LEADS, teams move beyond sharing findings to co-creating solutions, adapting designs to local systems, testing what works, and scaling proven approaches across countries and sectors. It’s how research becomes actionable, and how partnerships translate ideas into impact.

But how do we know this works?

We measure, test, and learn. By using an evaluation and feedback framework, we track not only reach but also learning, application, and time saved. This system connects the dots across our platforms—courses, tools, and podcasts—to understand what drives meaningful engagement and use.

The first results are telling. Across all our platforms, a network of 50,000+ people is engaging with the Institute’s tools and offerings. Here are some highlights: