Eleanor Jackson-Bowers, PHC RIS
The first stage of the PHC RIS research impact project is complete and the report is available on the PHC RIS web site at www.phcris.org.au
The purpose was to develop a way to assess the impact of primary health care research. We were also interested in pathways to impact and how they can be enhanced. Methods included interviews with the Chief Investigators of four nationally funded research projects and end users and a study of the project publications.
We considered the relevance of our findings to the proposed Research Quality Framework (RQF) commencing in 2007. In the RQF, assessment of research impact, defined as social, economic, environmental and/or cultural outcomes, will be considered as well as research quality, meaning academic impact, including publication measures.
Our findings suggest that research impact rather than research quality may be more important to the assessment of primary health care research under the RQF and this study gives grounds for optimism. Primary health care research can have a great deal of impact and can potentially do well with impact assessment; however, it will require some new ways of working.
We found that impact is facilitated by strong collaborative links, personal relationships, the involvement of people with links to decision making processes, and the congruence of the findings with users' priorities. As researchers, we need to keep records of conference and other presentations, media stories, reports and policy documents, and anything which quotes our work. Note individual requests for information and anything that follows such requests, and maintain contact with those who have used your research as their testimony provides evidence of research impact.
Our report gives guidance for researchers in compiling case studies and gathering evidence for the RQF. The second stage of our project is in the planning stages and will be conducted during 2007.
For more information contact:
Eleanor Jackson-Bowers
E: Eleanor.Jackson-Bowers@flinders.edu.au
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