Dramatic changes brought about by information and communication technologies (ICTs) have created new economic and social opportunities the world over. Access to and the strategic use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been shown to have the potential to help bring about economic development, poverty reduction, and democratisation.

IDS's work in this area seeks to understand how these new technologies can be harnessed to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised communities. We also look into how ICTs can best support the application of research evidence in development policy and practice.

Understanding information ecosystems - our research has looked at understanding how policy actors find, interpret and engage with information and ICTs. We apply the evidence gained from this work to inform our own approaches to research communication and the mobilising of research knowledge so that it can be applied to development policy and practice.

Knowledge mobilisation using ICTs - IDS Knowledge Services work with partners to develop knowledge mobilisation strategies, and knowledge mobilisaiton services to help people understand, access and apply research evidence. Developing and innovating ICTs, such as open APIs, is core to this area of our work.