Abstract
BackgroundCross-sector collaborative partnerships are a vital strategy in efforts to strengthen research-informed policy and practice and may be particularly effective at addressing the complex problems associated with chronic disease prevention. However, there is still a limited understanding of how such partnerships are implemented in practice and how their implementation contributes to outcomes. This paper explores the operationalisation and outcomes of knowledge mobilisation strategies within the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre — a research collaboration between policy-makers, practitioners and researchers.MethodsThe Centre’s programme model identifies six knowledge mobilisation strategies that are hypothesised to be essential for achieving its objectives. Using a mixed methods approach combining stakeholder interviews, surveys, participant feedback forms and routine process data over a 5-year period, we describe the structures, resources and activities used to operationalise these strategies and explore if and how they have contributed to proximal outcomes.ResultsResults showed that Centre-produced research, resources, tools and methods were impacting policy formation and funding. Policy-makers reported using new practical methodologies that were helping them to design, implement, evaluate and obtain funding for scaled-up policies and programmes, and co-creating compelling prevention narratives. Some strategies were better implemented and more impactful than others in supporting these outcomes, with variation in who they worked for. The activities used to effect engagement, capacity-building and partnership formation were mostly generating positive results, but co-production could be enhanced by greater shared decision-making. Considerably more work is needed to successfully operationalise knowledge integration and adaptive learning.ConclusionsDescribing how collaborative cross-sector research partnerships are operationalised in practice, and with what effects, can provide important insights into practical strategies for establishing and growing such partnerships and for maximising their contributions to policy. Findings suggest that the Centre has many strengths but could benefit from more inclusive and transparent governance and internal processes that facilitate dialogue about roles, expectations and co-production practices.
Highlights
Cross-sector collaborative partnerships are a vital strategy in efforts to strengthen research-informed policy and practice and may be effective at addressing the complex problems associated with chronic disease prevention
Knowledge mobilisation partnerships are increasingly recognised as a vital strategy in efforts to strengthen research-informed policy and practice [1,2,3,4]
Taking each of the Centre’s six knowledge mobilisation strategies in turn, we present a summary of how the Centre has tried to operationalise this strategy and give an overview of proximal outcomes
Summary
Cross-sector collaborative partnerships are a vital strategy in efforts to strengthen research-informed policy and practice and may be effective at addressing the complex problems associated with chronic disease prevention. Knowledge mobilisation partnerships are increasingly recognised as a vital strategy in efforts to strengthen research-informed policy and practice [1,2,3,4] These partnerships typically seek to combine the expertise of knowledge stakeholders across disciplines, sectors and jurisdictions (including policy-makers, practitioners, researchers, service users and communities) to improve the development, communication and implementation of evidence and innovations [5,6,7]. Cross-sector knowledge mobilisation can aid navigation of the complex systems in which research is used, which are influenced by diverse institutional structures, disciplines, processes, priorities and discourses [19] In such systems, expertise is distributed (and contested), interactions will be argumentative, political and valuesorientated, implementation will probably require frontline ownership, and change will be emergent [20]. Every partnership will have unique features and, like all complex systems, will be in flux [21], contingent on myriad factors, including relationships, values, leadership styles, incentives, structural and financial supports, role allocation, the type of problem being tackled, and their social and political contexts [3, 27, 30, 31]
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