Abstract
BackgroundTraditional reporting of research outcomes and impacts, which tends to focus on research product publications and grant success, does not capture the value, some contributions, or the complexity of research projects. The purpose of this study was to understand the contributions of five systems-level research projects as they were unfolding at the Bruyère Centre for Learning, Research and Innovation (CLRI) in long-term care (LTC) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The research questions were, (1) How are partnerships with research end-users (policymakers, administrators and other public/private organisations) characterised? (2) How have interactions with the CLRI Management Committee and Steering Committee influenced the development of research products? (3) In what way have other activities, processes, unlinked actors or organisations been influenced by the research project activities?MethodsThe study was guided by Kok and Schuit’s concept of research impacts, using a multiple case study design. Data were collected through focus groups and interviews with research teams, a management and a steering committee, research user partners, and unlinked actors. Documents were collected and analysed for contextual background.ResultsCross-case analysis revealed four major themes: (1) Benefits and Perceived Tensions: Working with Partners; (2) Speaking with the LTC Community: Interactions with the CLRI Steering Committee; (3) The Knowledge Broker: Interactions with the Management Committee; and (4) All Forms of Research Contributions.ConclusionsMost contributions were focused on interactions with networks and stimulating important conversations in the province about LTC issues. These contributions were well-supported by the Steering and Management Committees’ research-to-action platform, which can be seen as a type of knowledge brokering model. It was also clear that researcher-user partnerships were beneficial and important.
Highlights
Traditional reporting of research outcomes and impacts, which tends to focus on research product publications and grant success, does not capture the value, some contributions, or the complexity of research projects
This study focuses on the systems-level research projects associated with the Bruyère CLRI in long-term care (LTC)
A pivotal moment for the field was the 2014 Research Excellence Framework in the United Kingdom, where higher education institutions were asked to provide data related to impact indicators that were in turn tied to resource allocation and benchmarking [10]. This experience, along with a number of review articles [11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18], raises some key issues related to conducting impact evaluations, including that of bias, the high cost and labour intensiveness of evaluations, the minimal attention paid to uncovering policy impacts, and the heterogeneity in defining and measuring research impact
Summary
Traditional reporting of research outcomes and impacts, which tends to focus on research product publications and grant success, does not capture the value, some contributions, or the complexity of research projects. Kothari et al Health Research Policy and Systems (2017) 15:23 where funders and governments are demanding increased accountability by way of research products that lead to health outcomes [2] The literature in this area has received much attention of late, resulting in the development of research impact frameworks like the popular payback model, research impact model, research utilisation ladder, Weiss logic model, health technology assessment organisation assessment framework, societal impact framework, balanced scorecard, and cost-benefit analysis [3].
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