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Not only were we struggling to find the information they wanted, but what did exist was largely inaccessible 鈥?behind paywalls, buried on technical websites or written in a language that the farmers might not even speak. How could this knowledge trickle down into something meaningful to them?

Calls for more engaged scholarship to help tackle urgent and relevant problems and concerns are not new. Neither is the co-creation of knowledge and solutions to link the academic world with the public. Yet engaged scholarship isn鈥檛 the priority it needs to be if scientists are to support people in dire crises. If researchers are to listen to what communities need to address pressing issues 鈥?such as poverty, the inability to keep farming and overcoming conflicts 鈥?and assist in resolving them, then we need to work harder to change our habits and incentives in research.

Here are six suggestions, based on my experiences with the coffee farmers, on how scholarship can be more engaged with the world and responsive to societal needs, and of practical value to the communities that academics aim to support.

Start orienting parts of your work towards more practical outcomes. Look for ways to incorporate engaged scholarship into your research agenda, even if only a small portion of it. Each year, identify one or two goals aimed at directly connecting your work to benefit a community or segment of the broader public.

Collection: Co-production of research

If your role involves teaching, think of ways to educate early-career researchers on the existence of this type of scholarship and why it matters. The hope is that this will empower students to pursue it.

This could mean setting up PhD or master鈥檚 programmes with clear, practical real-world goals. Right now, we are brainstorming about the creation of a PhD programme and interdisciplinary school at my university. I encourage our faculty members to focus on what the biggest social concerns are now and what they will be in 50 years, and how we can help to solve them.

Advocate to hire colleagues with experience in practical and applied research. This will signal to your department that you see the value in it. By creating positions and hiring candidates who do this type of work, institutions signal that they want applicants to excel in this type of scholarship 鈥?and, in return, the market will respond.

When reviewing manuscripts for journals, push authors to use accessible language and to connect their findings to practical applications whenever possible. Scholars respond to few things as intensely and conscientiously as they do to the reviewers of their manuscripts. If they are pushed to make their language more accessible, or to explain how their work benefits broader society or has meaning for a particular group, they will do so.

Community partners will help you to stay oriented towards what their community needs. And a research partner outside your discipline might provide your work with practical considerations that you aren鈥檛 trained or equipped to handle. Don鈥檛 try to cultivate too many partnerships: they take time to build and require attention and practice. I recommend trying to build only a few strong relationships over time.

Meet with your department heads, deans or other leaders to tell them that this type of work matters, and ask how it could be rewarded. For better or worse, academia and research are built on individual recognition of achievements. Understanding how your work in this area could be rewarded will give you the security you need to pursue it. Even if you cannot get assurance that it will be rewarded, your initiative will at least get it on the radar of leaders 鈥?and, over time, if enough people mention it, leaders will understand that they need to start recognizing it.