Translating Research into Action

In 2026, Dr. Derek R. Slagle, a faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will serve as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.

The Fulbright Specialist Program supports short-term academic exchanges that connect U.S. scholars with international institutions to address shared challenges through collaboration, teaching, and applied research. Through this program, Slagle will collaborate with the University of Pretoria’s Public Policy Hub (PPH) and the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS-UP).  

Slagle’s upcoming assignment will focus on a core challenge in public administration: how universities, governments, and communities can work together to ensure that research meaningfully informs policy and public service delivery. For Slagle, the answer begins long before findings are published.

“For me, accessibility begins well before results are written up. It starts with how research is designed and conducted,” he said.

Rather than producing research in isolation, Slagle plans to work alongside faculty, policymakers, and community partners to clarify what decisions evidence should inform and how it should be communicated. 

At the center of Slagle’s work is co-production, a collaborative model that invites communities, practitioners, and policymakers to help define problems and shape solutions.

“Effective co-production means moving beyond consultation toward shared ownership of both the problem and the solution,” Slagle said. “It involves joint problem framing, recognition of multiple forms of expertise – including lived and community experience – and sustained interaction throughout a project.”

By aligning academic inquiry more closely with public-sector realities and community priorities, Slagle believes universities can serve as effective bridges between knowledge and action. 

A defining feature of this upcoming work is tackling barriers to evidence-informed policymaking through community engagement. While evidence-based approaches are widely endorsed, research often fails to reach decision-makers in usable ways. To address this, Slagle emphasizes iteration as central to effective research and evaluation. He argues that more durable and legitimate policy solutions emerge when communities are empowered as co-designers rather than treated as passive recipients.

The Fulbright work will also explore public service delivery in resource-constrained environments, including the responsible use of AI and other digital technologies. While he sees opportunities for AI to support data analysis, communication, and service coordination, he stresses that ethical decisions must remain central to ensuring innovation strengthens trust and public value.

Slagle was drawn to the Fulbright Specialist opportunity because the challenges at the University of Pretoria mirror those faced in Arkansas and across the U.S. He views the assignment as a reciprocal learning opportunity and looks forward to applying what he learns back to the UA Little Rock campus as well as the greater Little Rock community.

Ultimately, Slagle sees the Fulbright Specialist experience as reinforcing the role of universities as boundary-spanning institutions; connecting research, policy, and practice in ways that serve the public good locally and globally.