Dissemination is generally seen as a measure, through which the results are brought into the awareness of certain target groups. In this case, dissemination (diffusion) refers to a special communication process which spreads information to the members of a community. Dissemination is expressly limited to concern those messages only which contain new ideas, whereas communication research concerns all kinds of communication. The purpose of dissemination is to influence people’s behaviour, so that they will adopt or at least become aware of a new idea, product or service which is being disseminated. The use of various kinds of methods supporting each other is important when planning dissemination. Research results show, that although the communication media are the best channels to introduce innovations, the change of attitude required for their adoption is most effectively achieved through interaction between people (Rogers & Shoemaker, 1971). Towards the end of the 1980s, the importance of disseminating the results of research and development activities rose to the foreground in OECD. The new politics pointed out that most of the financial advantages brought about by the new technology are due to technological diffusion, i.e. the adoption of the technology available, rather than to the development of technology itself.

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In the early 1990s, EU evaluated the productivity of its research and training activities. The conclusions were explicit. In 1994, it was pointed out in the EU White Paper on Competition, that, compared with the United States and Japan, the principal weakness of the EU countries was the limited ability to turn the scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations into industrial and commercial achievements. It is a concrete sign of change that the dissemination of results is becoming one of the central criteria in the activity programmes financed by EU. New ways and means are being sought to utilize the European contribution in building general welfare and competitive ability. In education and training, where knowledge rapidly becomes outdated, and where the development of teaching techniques and the change in the teacher’s role have recently become more and more prominent, the necessity of dissemination has also become more urgent. At the same time, dissemination is being viewed from a new angle. Traditionally, the dissemination of results has consisted of spreading information to a large audience in such a way that the information would also be available and comprehensible to other people than the professionals. Nowadays, the interest is more and more directed to disseminating the results in a way that would affect the development of individuals and communities. In the key role are especially the professionals who should learn to learn together with other professionals and use the results of thousands of development projects carried out in the field of education.

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The definition of dissemination

Dissemination (diffusion) is an interactive process with the help of which the participants create and deliver information to each other about an innovation in order to reach mutual understanding. Successful dissemination of an innovation produces change in people’s thinking and actions. Dissemination always consists of four recognizable and definable elements: innovation, dissemination channels, time, and the people and communities which form the social system of the dissemination process. (Rogers 1983).