Understanding the health care system is very important for EBP research.  And knowing your stakeholders is also important.  However, In the health care system and in health care research, stakeholders are more than financial supporters.  Stakeholders are customers, the general public, suppliers, and any other group that might be affected by the decisions being made.  Stakeholder engagement is a process where input and ideas from those who are named as stakeholders are incorporated into the decision making process.  The attitude is that when organizations involve these stakeholders, the overall effectiveness of their change process will be enhanced.  Stakeholder engagement helps to drive long-term sustainability of change a align research with societal needs and expectations (Pandi-Perumal, et al., 2015). 

References:

Pandi-Perumal, S. R., Akhter, S., Zizi, F., Jean-Louis, G., Ramasubramanian, C., Freeman, R. E., & Narasimhan,

M. (2015). Project Stakeholder Management in the Clinical Research Environment: How to Do it Right.

Frontiers in Psychiatry6.Retrieved from 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4434843/#__ffn_sectitle