Research Partnerships: Tips & Tricks

KT Encounters is a blog and video series designed to deepen our understanding of knowledge translation (KT), which is the broad range of activities meant to improve the use of research evidence in practice, policy and further research. We’ve invited KT experts, including researchers, practitioners and patient representatives, to share their experiences and expertise.

 

Jump to our other themes: Terminology KT 2.0

When there is strong engagement between researchers and researcher users working together on a team, evidence is more likely to inform policy, practice and further research. We know that forging research collaborations between researchers and research users can be both rewarding and challenging. These videos offer researchers and research users some considerations for working more effectively with each other.

Produced by Michael Smith Health Research BC. Filming and post-production by the Knowledge Mobilization Studio.

Speaker titles and affiliations subject to change.

Speakers

Bev Holmes | VP, Research & Impact, Health Research BC (Host)

Chris McBride | Executive Director, Spinal Cord Injury BC

A solution in search of a problem?

Who should drive the research process – researchers? Users? Both?

Should all research require the involvement of users or potential users?

Whose responsibility is it to do knowledge translation? Why?

Engaging the community

Does it matter if users are speaking for themselves or represent a group?

What are strategies for creating “respectful engagement” between partner groups?

How can users and researchers find each other?

Key elements to a good partnership

How would you help researchers and community partners work together? Can you think of examples of when researchers and users have ‘got it right’ or ‘got it wrong’? Can you think of other key elements to a good partnership besides timing, relevance, language and value?

How users can help ‘get it right’

How have you ‘got it right’ or ‘got it wrong’ as a researcher or research user partner?

What resources can be brought to a project to support the user and to ensure success?

How do you build trust between users and researcher team members?

The knowledge production problem and exploiting differences

Is co-production of knowledge the answer to closing the gap between knowledge and practice?

How do you exploit their differences when you bring researchers and users together on a project?

What is your experience with bringing researchers and users to the same table?