The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has transformed how colleagues access and use research intelligence by putting stakeholder needs at the heart of platform design. Through extensive co-design and a self-service approach, the Research Intelligence Hub has improved collaboration, reduced manual requests, and enabled teams across the charity to communicate research impact more effectively.
Research intelligence is one of the British Heart Foundation’s most valuable assets, but for many years it was difficult for colleagues outside specialist teams to access and use it effectively. By creating the Research Intelligence Hub, BHF has changed that, replacing fragmented processes with a single, trusted platform designed around the needs of its users.
Rather than treating the project as a technology implementation, BHF focused on understanding how different stakeholder groups worked and what they needed from research intelligence. Colleagues from Research, Fundraising, Philanthropy, Marketing, Communications, and Research Engagement all played a central role in shaping the platform, ensuring it supported a wide range of technical abilities, workflows, and business objectives.
Stakeholder needs take centre stage
The Research Intelligence Hub was created to make information about BHF’s £460 million research portfolio accessible to everyone who needed it, whether they were analysing funding trends, preparing donor proposals, or developing public campaigns.
Extensive workshops with colleagues across multiple directorates informed every stage of the design process. These sessions identified common pain points and resulted in four user personas:
- Researchers
- Projects
- Funding statistics
- Impact stories
These personas shaped the platform’s navigation, helping users quickly find researchers, projects, funding statistics, or impact stories most relevant to their role.
The platform consolidated six internal and external data sources into a single governed environment, supported by Azure, Databricks Lakehouse, and Power BI. Stakeholder feedback continued throughout development, leading to practical improvements such as simplified navigation, dynamic buttons, and accessibility enhancements that made the platform intuitive for both technical and non-technical users.
“A thoughtful, people‑centred approach to engagement that brings diverse teams together around shared insight. There is a strong emphasis on accessibility, co‑design, and practical collaboration.” – Judges’ comments
Delivering better collaboration through self-service
By placing stakeholder engagement at the centre of development, BHF has fundamentally changed how research intelligence is used across the organisation.
Key outcomes include:
- 66% reduction in data requests to specialist Research teams.
- Six previously separate data sources consolidated into one trusted platform.
- Research, Fundraising, Philanthropy, Marketing, Communications, and Retail teams now work from a single source of truth.
- Automated data integration completed in under one hour, ensuring near real-time information.
- Donor and fundraising teams can identify suitable research projects and impact stories in minutes rather than days.
- User personas developed are now reused across other BHF teams.
The impact extends beyond operational efficiency. Marketing and communications teams now have immediate access to trusted evidence for campaigns, while fundraising and philanthropy teams can quickly connect donor interests with relevant research opportunities. Research specialists have been freed from responding to routine information requests, allowing them to focus on higher-value strategic work.
Perhaps most importantly, the Hub has strengthened collaboration across the charity by giving every stakeholder group access to the same trusted information, improving consistency in how BHF communicates the impact of its research.
A healthier future
The Research Intelligence Hub demonstrates that successful stakeholder engagement begins long before a platform is launched. By involving users throughout the design process and continually refining the experience based on feedback, BHF has created a solution that colleagues have embraced.
The approach is already influencing the wider sector, with BHF sharing its experience through organisations including the Health Research Alliance, while the user-centred design principles developed for the project are now being applied across other internal initiatives.
The DataIQ judges recognised the Hub as an outstanding example of stakeholder engagement because it shows that when technology is designed around people, rather than processes, it delivers lasting organisational change. By making research intelligence accessible, trusted, and genuinely useful, BHF has created a stronger foundation for collaboration, better decision-making, and ultimately greater impact for the people its research is intended to help.
