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Table 1 Capacity-building initiatives described by the papers included in the review

From: A literature review of knowledge translation and partnership research training programs for health researchers

 

Authors, year, reference

Country

Participants

Duration

Capacity-building modality

Aims of initiative/key areas covered/description of training program

 

Gerrish & Piercy (2014) [30]

United Kingdom

Clinical and academic nurses from pilot organisations who undertook secondments from 2009 to 2012

9–24 months part time (0.2 FTE)

Secondments into KT project teams

Aims not specified Secondments were created to enhance the expertise in KT teams, especially clinical and evaluation skills (from the academic secondees) and provide capacity-building opportunities to benefit CLAHRC partners in the long term

Key skills included applying KT frameworks in practise, evidence appraisal, skills to facilitate practice change and evaluation

Jones et al. (2015) [31]

Australia

Researchers

1 day

Training course (face-to-face)

Key themes: (1) KT and exchange theory and science; (2) planning for KT; (3) developing relationships for engagement and exchange with decision-makers; (4) communicating research; and (5) evaluating KT and research impact

Santacroce et al. (2018) [32]

United States of America

University of North Carolina pre- and postdoctoral research nurses

Training and competency assessment activities were embedded into pre- and post-doctoral coursework and research outputs over several years

Training is integrated into coursework, mandatory scientific seminars and other research training activities

Key themes include stakeholder engagement, patient-centred outcomes, intervention optimisation and sequential multiple randomized trials (SMART), pragmatic trials, mixed methods approaches, and dissemination and implementation science strategies

Students are required to demonstrate proficiency in two of the key research translation themes in their scholarly products

Uneke et al. (2012) [33]

Nigeria

Policy-makers, researchers and other major stakeholders

1 day

One-day workshop

The workshop was designed to facilitate the meeting of health researchers and policy-makers in Nigeria, and to assist those working on similar projects to overcome professional barriers between the two disciplines. Lectures and interactive discussions were held around the following topics: 1) Introduction to health policy and systems research/building evidence-informed policy environments; (2) Capacity development and enhancement for evidence-informed health policy-making; (3) Acquisition, assessment, adaptation & application of evidence in health policy-making and (4) Building effective linkage, partnership & exchange between health policy-makers and researchers in Nigeria. Participants in the workshop were also broken up into six focus groups to discuss the topic ‘Bridging the gap between health policy-makers & researchers’

 

Uneke et al. (2018) [34]

Nigeria

10 researchers and 10 senior policy staff

Part-time secondment, up to 2 working days per week over a period of 6 months

Two-way secondment (policy-makers working in research teams and researchers working within government health programs)

Researchers seconded to policy teams provided research expertise to several projects, including the State Malaria Elimination program, reproductive health services, and primary healthcare

Research secondees were instructed to (1) build trust and understand policy-maker’s evidence needs; (2) play an expert advisory role and provide scientific evidence to guide on policy issues; and (3) provide capacity enhancement for policy-makers

Policy-maker experiences (in research organisations) were also reported; however, this is out of scope for the present review

Ultimately, the two-way secondment aimed to increase collaboration between policy-makers and researchers in Nigeria and build capacity for ongoing evidence-informed policy-making

Following the secondments, all participants (both researchers and policy-makers) attended a policy dialogue event where they received training on preparing a policy brief; the event was used to produce national guidelines on malaria control using insecticide-treated nets in Ebonyi State

 

Uneke et al. (2018) [35]

Nigeria

45 participants: researchers from the Implementation Research Team, policy-makers (from the Ministry of Health, Local Government Area, state primary healthcare development agency) and representatives from non-governmental organisations

3 days

Training course (face-to-face)

The aim of the training program was to increase the capacity of policy-makers and researchers to undertake KT and promote evidence-based policy; the 3-day training workshop included 15 modules (5 per day)

The 15 modules were

Introduction to health policy and health systems; Introduction to KT (IKT and End-of-Grant KT); Research priority setting; Leadership capacity development and managing political interference; Getting research into policy and practice; KT models measures; Research evidence in health policy-making and health policy implementation; Health policy advocacy, demand creation, consensus-building and negotiations; KT tools and strategies for stakeholders and end users engagement; Policy formulation and implementation process. Modules were taught each day by way of lectures and group work sessions; lecture sessions used learning tools such as PowerPoint slides and handouts; group work consisted of focus group discussion, question/answer sessions and group work

Papers emerging from the KTSI run by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Kho et al. (2009) [36]

Canada

Primarily doctoral students or PhDs (early career researchers)

4 days

Training course (face-to-face)

The aims of the KTSI in relation to health services, policy, population or public health were (1) to explore the challenges of planning and carrying out KT research and KT; (2) to explore involving and/or engaging different stakeholder groups; (3) to increase the understanding of concepts, methods and theories relevant to KT research; and (4) to investigate the contribution of different disciplinary and methodological approaches to KT practise

Leung et al. (2010) [37]

Canada

One group of participants from the 2009 KTSI (doctoral students and early career researchers)

One learning session

Component of training course (practice developing an end-of-grant KT plan)

The aims of this session were to provide participants with an opportunity to develop an end-of-grant KT plan for multiple stakeholders and have exposure to the challenges of the KT planning process in a supervised environment; in developing the plan, the participants used a three-step process to inform the key strategies for the project, identifying first the goals of the KT plan, and from this the target audience and key messages; participants also planned out dissemination and diffusion activities

Bhogal et al. (2011) [38]

Canada

One group of participants from the 2009 KTSI (doctoral students and early career researchers)

One learning session

Component of training course (problem-based learning case study – developing a KT intervention)

This problem-based learning session contributed to the goals of the KTSI by providing opportunities for trainees to learn the skills necessary to carry out a KT intervention and to give students exposure to the challenges, variety and complexity of KT cases

  1. CLAHRCs Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care; FTE full time equivalent; IKT integrated knowledge translation; KT knowledge translation; KTSI Knowledge Translation Summer Institute