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Primary Health Care Research Impact Project: Stage 2

The impact of research is a topical issue in Australia and internationally because of increasing pressures for research funding to be accountable in terms of benefits and transfer of research findings into practice and policy. The Research Quality Framework (RQF) will assess both the social/environmental impact and the quality of university research, with university funding to be allocated on the basis of that assessment.

During 2006 PHC RIS undertook a research project to study the impact of a random sample of four large nationally funded research projects and how this may best be assessed. We trialled the use of the Buxton and Hanney Payback Framework¹ as a way of structuring data collection and made some recommendations on the use of this methodology.

This project showed that the four projects we studied had considerable impact on health policy, organisational development and professional practice and could potentially do well under the RQF. The report from this study is available at PHC RIS (www.phcris.org.au/activities/rip).

The second stage of this project, to be undertaken during 2007, will explore the social/environmental impact of a larger body of primary healthcare research and substantiate recommendations for future funding of primary health care research and capacity development. It will also study the pathways through which impact occurs, consider these pathways in the context of current models of research transfer and make recommendations on how these pathways may be enhanced.

The methods will include analysis of the publications derived from the projects, analysis of documents associated with the dissemination of the project, a questionnaire to be completed by the Chief Investigator asking for details of the project's impact in pre determined categories, follow up interviews with these Chief Investigators and brief interviews with one or two people who can provide further information about how the research was used in policy or practice.

For further information contact:
Eleanor Jackson Bowers, Research Associate
E: eleanor.jackson-bowers@flinders.edu.au

Reference
¹ Hanney, S., et al. (2004). Proposed methods for reviewing the outcomes of health research: the impact of funding by the UK's Arthritis Research Campaign. Health Research Policy and Systems, 2(4). Retrieved April 2006.