Why Drinkaware invests in research

As the national charity working to prevent and reduce alcohol misuse in Ireland, our work is, as it must be, grounded in research evidence and rigorous evaluation.

Drinkaware’s commitment to research:

• We commission regular, robust evidence-informed research to understand and quantify societal behaviour and attitudes regarding alcohol in Ireland, in collaboration with research partners that recognise best practice and operate to the guideline standards established by membership of the Market Research Society (MRS) and European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).
• We are committed to allowing all stakeholders the opportunity to access our research evidence, research that is transparent and in a format that is clear and easy to interpret, so it can be used to the greatest possible impact and public benefit.
• We embed core research principles into our work at all times to safeguard the efficacy and integrity of everything we do.
• We use recognised standardised question models to ensure our data can be cross-corroborated and cross-analysed with national and international research.
• We support knowledge exchange in order to address alcohol misuse and related harm. This will in turn help to enrich understanding, and expertise created for enabling positive behaviour change.

Why we created our alcohol research bank

We created our alcohol research bank to create a space that is inclusive and responsive because the real power of data lies in it being open access and available to all stakeholders. This is a knowledge exchange space in which we share robust Irish and international research by the World Health Organisation, Health Research Board, Healthy Ireland and others alongside our own data, with all levels of evidence-users. In so doing, this will assist with further robust evaluation that will ultimately facilitate evidence-based decision-making and and contribute towards positive societal impact.

Through our research bank, it is our intention to create the opportunity to increase the reuse of data. We aim to encourage understanding, support and trust in the importance of continued research on alcohol consumption, misuse and harm. Over time, we will add new topics and issue areas to the research bank to provide a comprehensive understanding of the many facets of alcohol misuse and harm.