Sarah Morton

Communication & Knowledge Exchange Specialist for SSPHR and Co-Director at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships

Tel: 0131 651 1939
Fax: 0131 651 1833
S.Morton@ed.ac.uk

Role

Sarah works across several knowledge exchange projects

• Knowledge exchange specialist for the Scottish School of Public Health Research
• Co-Director (Knowledge Exchange) at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships
• A range of other work around increasing the uptake and use of research in policy and practice and assessing research impact

Research Interests

I work at the interface between social research, policy and practice in a range of leadership roles. I am Co-Director (Knowledge Exchange) at the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships where I lead a Knowledge Exchange team which facilitates ways in which research on families and relationships can be widely used.

I am the Knowledge Exchange Specialist for the Scottish School for Public Health Research, and an Impact Analyst within the University of Edinburgh and with wider projects

I have recently combined this work with an ESRC funded PhD looking at the process assessing the impact of research on policy and practice. I am an associate of the Research Unit for Research Utilisation and was a member of the Scottish Funding Council's working group on Knowledge Exchange and Public Policy. I am interested in all aspects of research use and knowledge to action, particularly social research, issues in the co-production of research, assessing impact and approaches to research use which address complexity.

I have been working in knowledge exchange for over ten years, but previously had held a variety of networking, policy development and research roles in the voluntary sector. This work builds on my experience of community education, community development and adult education.

Selected publications

• Morton, Nutley and Phipps (2012) Using research to influence family services and policies: issues and challenges Families, Relationships and Society 1 (2) Policy Press
• Morton, S. and S. Nutley (2011). What happens next? Getting research into policy and practice. Researching families and relationships : reflections on process. In L. Jamieson, R. Lewis and R. Simpson(eds) . New York, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Nutley, S., S. Morton, et al. (2010). "Evidence and policy in six European countries: diverse approaches and common challenges." Evidence & Policy: A Journal of Research, Debate and Practice 6: 131-144.