Table 3 Descriptive information on final included studies
From: Engaged scholarship and public policy decision-making: a scoping review
Primary author, year; country | Public policy issue | Partnership model/methods to describe and evaluate | Stakeholders | Initiator | Funding/duration | Key actions to support engaged scholarship | Contextual factors | Outcomes reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bowes et al., 2004 [32]; Australia | Child care and early childhood development | Partnership; ‘user-centric’ description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: Australian Research Council; Macquarie University Public Policy: NSW Department of Community Services; Office of Child Care (commissioned study) Other: Sydney Day Nursery Association Children’s Services, Kindergarten Union Children’s Services; Practitioners | Request from Office of Child Care in the NSW Department of Community Services | NSW Department of Community Services contributed financial and in-kind support / more than 3 years | Meetings, funding for travel to annual meetings, six-monthly newsletter, teleconferences, expert policy personnel; all members planned stages of data collection and analysis | NR | NR; calls for future research applying an ecological approach with many contextual factors |
Bumbarger et al., 2012 [33]; United States | Children’s mental health | Research–policy partnership description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: Prevention Research Center at Penn State University Public Policy: Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Department of Public Welfare, State Departments of Education and Health, Juvenile Court Judges Commission | Penn State Prevention Research Center | Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, Department of Public Welfare, State Departments of Education and Health / Decade long | Training of stakeholders for data analysis, stakeholder programme training | Effective communication; understanding and recognition of each partner’s hierarchy in project planning | Provided practical knowledge on partnership |
Eriksson et al., 2014 [34]; Sweden | Health promotion | Academic practice policy partnership analysis of three case studies; realist approach including data from reflective dialogues, evaluation meetings and interviews | Research: Team at Orebro University Public Policy: National Board of Health and Welfare, followed by the National Institute of Public Health and, from 2014, by the Public Health Agency of Sweden | Researchers | NR / 2003 onwards | Consultations, conferences, project leader meetings each year; implementation of annual work programmes, annual progress reports on non-government organisation projects and research | Outlining responsibilities at beginning; limited previous experience working with non-government organisations | Final results presented and discussed with non-government organisations; in-depth studies, including two doctoral dissertations and published papers |
Research: Team at Orebro University: Public Policy: Sweden’s National Institute of Public Health; the Swedish Association of local Authorities and regions, and the Swedish Association of Municipal Housing Companies Other: The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning | Partnership agreement and a research programme were developed at the same time | National Institute of Public Health and small payment by each of the partners / 2003–2009 | A steering group (politicians, public health officers, researchers), a coordinating committee (public health officers, researchers), working groups, and annual conferences | Policy and research stakeholders had previously been involved with a national network for public health action in larger municipalities in Sweden; common interests and perspectives | One doctoral dissertation and research papers | |||
Research: Team at Orebro University Public Policy: National Institute for Public Health; politicians within a municipality Other: practitioners at the public health administration in Karlskoga and Degerfors | The National Institute of Public Health issued call for research by municipality in collaboration with an academic institution. | NR / NR | Steering group and joint working group (academics, practitioners and politicians in the municipalities) that met monthly | Trust of researchers indicated by previous records; relevance and quality of research achievements | Nine research studies and two meta-analytic studies, a family guide and a book in Swedish, and presentations at national and international conferences | |||
Jose et al., 2017 [35]; Australia | Workplace health promotion and policy decision-making | Partnership case study design and mixed-methods approach using partnership assessment tools and interviews | Research: University of Tasmania Public Policy: Tasmanian State Service | Tasmanian state government allocated funding, the National Health and Medical Research Council provided grant to evaluate and improve research partnership | Australia’s Partnership for Better Health Grants scheme/5 years | Quarterly meetings of management committee (researchers and public policy); broader investigator group; four working groups in areas of need; use of a partnership analysis tool; joint planning sessions to clarify research priorities and ensure research was policy relevant | Recognition of different research and policy priorities; flexibility and acknowledgment of different perspectives | Individualised reports for departments; 7 published papers; over 17 presentations at national and international conferences; presentations at local forums; lunchtime seminar series presented by researcher and policy-maker/manager |
Bates et al., 2008 [36]; Canada | Telehealth solutions for cardiovascular disease | Alliance, partnership description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: 15 university-based researchers from 4 universities Public policy: health authority policy-makers; the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, The Northern Health Authority, The Provincial Health Services Authority Other: healthcare professionals | From a core group of researchers that identified the need for new models of care | Seed grant; external research funding sources / more than 2 years | Team leader and governance structure with responsibilities for admin and operational activities of partnership; communication plan of bimonthly teleconferences and quarterly face-to-face meetings | Maintaining communication; team leader facilitated involvement of patient front-line provider, collaboration and connections between stakeholders | Publication; innovation fund awarded for further development |
Maluka et al., 2014; Tanzania [37] | Health systems and policy-making | Action research description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: Tanzanian institutes, research institutions from Europe Public Policy: Council Health Management Team; Council Health Service Board Other: Involvement of groups from community district health setting, non-government organisations, community members | Researchers in Tanzania and Europe teamed with decision-makers | European Union/5 years | Priority-setting meetings; annual workshops; monthly reports; full-time person to facilitate the implementation of the project | Action research methodology required more meetings to guide council health management team | NR |
Newman et al., 2011 [38]; Australia | Social exclusion | Network, research–policy collaboration description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: Flinders University Public policy: policy actor from social inclusion unit located within government in the Department of the Premier and the cabinet | WHO established the Commission on Social Determinants of Health, setting up nine knowledge networks – The Social Exclusion Knowledge Network | NR / 3 months | Weekly visits to government offices allowing for discussion with key policy actors; face-to-face discussions and side-by-side work on joint work; post project de-briefing meetings; key researcher liaison responsible for timely completion and consultation with partners | Contextual elements of researcher–policy partnership included developing relationship (working together early); acknowledging and appreciating cultural differences; clarifying the goal; defining the roles; creating the process and the knowledge together; deriving implications from the knowledge | Final report was produced |
Rütten et al., 2014 [39]; Germany | Physical activity promotion project | Capacity-building interactive knowledge-to-action case study - process evaluation (participant observation, interviews, survey) | Research: University-based research Public policy: Ministry of Health; regional-level public-law institutions Other: non-government organisation | Scientific partner teamed up with relevant organisations | European Commission/NR | Co-operative planning; team building through teaming research and policy partners; planning group-involved sessions to brainstorm, prioritise ideas, define goals, develop specific actions to reach goals | Scheduling challenges - smaller organisations had limited staff and larger organisations sent different representatives, which hampered the continuity of the process | NR |
Theobald et al., 2009 [40]; Africa | Case #1: HIV counselling and testing in Kenya | Research–policy/practice interface, OPERATIONAL research case study – used RAPID framework to analyse factors influencing research into policy | Research: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Global Health Development Group Public policy: Government of Kenya | Emerged from Ministerial Summit of Health Research in Mexico City in 2004 | NR / NR | Capacity-building activities to consolidate linkages and partnership; teaching and supervision systems facilitated constructive engagement with programme planners; established national taskforce; involved counsellors in testing of guidelines; incorporated clients’ concerns into guidelines | Data availability; capacity-building | Noted lack of funding to implement recommendations provided from the research |
Case #2: provision of tuberculosis services in grocery stores in Malawi | Research: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Global Health Development Group Public policy: Ministry of Health Malawi: policy-makers Other: Research for Equity and Community Health | Norwegian Heart and Patient Lung Association / NR | ||||||
Case #3: community diagnosis for anaemia, tuberculosis and malaria in Nigeria | Research: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s Global Health Development Group Public policy: Federal and State Health Ministries: policy-makers | Department for International Development / NR | ||||||
Tran et al., 2009 [41]; Malaysia | Road traffic injuries | Collective research and practice, collaborative learning framework description of partnership (no evaluation) | Research: Universiti Putra Malaysia in Malaysia, and the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in the United States Public policy: Ministry of Transport, Malaysian Institute for Road Safety Research | Researchers held meetings with Department of Road Safety and other stakeholders | FIA Foundation, Malaysian Department of Road Safety, the Selangor State Road Safety Council, the Klang District Municipality | Knowledge brokering, included (1) synthesis of available research; (2) policy analysis involving various stakeholders, range of policy options developed; (3) policy/research forum to determine policy recommendations; followed framework for collective research practice; plan for dissemination of the results developed to inform stakeholders; national dissemination workshop; public meetings to identify vision, goal and objectives | Guided by a framework; Government endorsement; differences in problem solving approaches and perspectives | Strengthened relationships and opened up communication between academic researchers and policy-makers to support future collective research and practice |
Waqa et al., 2013 [42]; Fiji | Obesity prevention in communities | Knowledge brokering case study - data collected through process diaries describing interaction | Research: Fiji National University; Fiji School of Medicine in Suva; Deakin University Public Policy: four government departments Other: two non-government organisations | Project managed by researchers at Fiji National University, the Pacific Research Centre for the Prevention of Obesity and Non-communicable Diseases and Deakin University | Australian Agency for International Development on an Australian Development Research Awards grant / 2009–2012 | Emails, telephone conversations; nomination of advisors to facilitate activities; workshops; part-time research fellow and consultant hired to assist with workshops and provide support to advisory groups | Some organisations had limited access to online databases | Development of evidence-informed policy briefs aligned with national and organisational strategies; oral presentations of the brief and submission of written document to high-level officers/decision-makers |