Table 2 Criteria chosen to appraise six research options by participants in Uganda

1. Impact (on nutrition and society)

Impact on society: reduces poverty and increases equity; empowerment; participation; gives benefits to environment, food rights; Will it work to improve nutritional status? Time lag for impact of findings, sustainability, addresses an important issue/pertinence; reaches the right target groups, especially women and children and reaches minority and vulnerable sub-populations; broad reach of findings in population; findings can be scaled up or applied in reality.

2. Research efficacy

Quality of research: rigour, representativeness, measurable; originality; multidisciplinary; applied research focus; availability of baseline data; relevance; uses existing evidence; can be evaluated/monitored; publication of results to academic audience; time that research takes to conduct; contribution to new knowledge.

3. Cost

Cost of doing the research; cost-effectiveness; cost of applying the research findings.

4. Practical feasibility

Can research be conducted politically, technically? Policy environment for supporting it. Cooperation of agencies, across departments and sectors; supported by government and at policy level. Technical feasibility, can be implemented, is practical- IT infrastructure, equipment, buildings, access to facilities. Is the human capacity available- in terms of skills/good management structures.

5. Social acceptability

Social, cultural and individual acceptability; popularity; community participation and consultation both before and after research findings are known; culturally relevant; evidence it meets local needs; adapted to communicate with illiterate populations.