Academic researchers are increasingly required, and rightly so, to demonstrate the impact of their work beyond the gates of the university. This has led to an increasing focus…
Abstract
Purpose
Academic researchers are increasingly required, and rightly so, to demonstrate the impact of their work beyond the gates of the university. This has led to an increasing focus, especially in response to funded calls, on developing research partnerships that cross disciplines, sectors and borders to help address our grand societal challenges. The purpose of this paper is to set out learning from the work of the organisation the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) and reflections on how to bring forward effective research partnerships involving users.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is based on reflections and learning from the organisation CARDI which delivered a highly successful programme of interdisciplinary, cross-sectoral and cross-country research partnerships in both rural and urban areas between 2007 and 2015, across the island of Ireland.
Findings
Research partnerships that wish to involve users require time, commitment, support, understanding and a willingness to change and be challenged. This paper highlights that there are methodological, philosophical, moral, economic and of course, practical aspects to be considered.
Research limitations/implications
This reflective paper is based on a case study from the island of Ireland during the period 2007–2015 working in the area of ageing and older people.
Practical implications
The author emphasises that for research partnerships involving users to be successful, they need to not only consider the most effective research methods but also focus on the overarching purpose of the work and adopt an ethos and practice that maximises each partner’s knowledge and expertise to their full potential.
Social implications
This reflective paper focused on the characteristics associated with partnership success, i.e. communication style, values, philosophy and practice and argues that establishing effective and inclusive partnerships requires time, the appropriate framework and reviewing the process on an ongoing basis.
Originality/value
The issue of user involvement in research partnerships requires much more consideration. Researchers, government, funders, businesses and service providers are increasingly recognising the benefits of “user” involvement to help design programmes and services that are most effective. Nowhere is this more important than in planning and delivering services, policy and programmes for our ageing population.
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Aideen Sheehan and Roger O'Sullivan
Research with vulnerable groups is crucial to get their input into public policy design that will directly impact on them. However, there are many methodological and ethical…
Abstract
Research with vulnerable groups is crucial to get their input into public policy design that will directly impact on them. However, there are many methodological and ethical challenges involved in encouraging participation from groups with a wide range of intellectual, cognitive and physical capacities while ensuring that the rights and well-being of participants are protected. Rather than exploring ethical theories, this chapter is a case study describing the practical ethical considerations that were involved in designing and holding a series of focus groups with adult health and social care service users from vulnerable cohorts. It is based on a series of focus groups which the Institute of Public Health (IPH) held with specified cohorts as part of a policy development process on adult safeguarding for the Department of Health (DOH) in Ireland. The four cohorts were people with intellectual disability, cognitive impairments, significant mental health challenges and nursing home residents. This chapter does not describe the findings of the focus groups but outlines the ethical and methodological considerations that arose in designing and conducting this research, and the practical ethical safeguards employed to mitigate risk and comply with Irish and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation governing health research. It outlines the ethical issues around protecting confidentiality and using incentives to encourage participation, how individuals' capacity to give informed consent was maximized, the risk-assessment and mitigation procedures used to prevent harms arising and the measures put in place to provide follow-up emotional support to participants.
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Recognition of potential for greater all‐Ireland cooperation, pooling of expertise, and sharing of knowledge led to the establishment of the Centre for Ageing Research and…
Abstract
Purpose
Recognition of potential for greater all‐Ireland cooperation, pooling of expertise, and sharing of knowledge led to the establishment of the Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland (CARDI) in 2007. This paper seeks to outline the development of CARDI and in particular the delivery of its grants programme as a model for supporting ageing research to work across disciplines, sectors and borders.
Design/methodology/approach
Using CARDI as a case study, this paper charts the organisation's development and in particular focuses on the development and learning from its grants programme, established to support ageing research in Ireland, north and south.
Findings
CARDI has promoted and helped support the development of a community of researchers on ageing across Ireland via its grants programme, networking events and communication's strategy. There is growing momentum, interest and potential in an all‐Ireland approach to research on ageing and older people.
Originality/value
Research can and must play a vital role in informing future policies and services for our ageing population. This paper explores the development of ageing research in Ireland, illustrating a model for working across disciplines, sectors and borders when supporting and communicating research on ageing in Ireland, north and south, to the benefit of researchers, policy makers and older people.
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Carol Reynolds Geary and Jeffrey Ordway
In this chapter, we consider collaborative models of engaged research in comparison to models of team science that include persons with lived experience of the topic area as team…
Abstract
In this chapter, we consider collaborative models of engaged research in comparison to models of team science that include persons with lived experience of the topic area as team members. ‘Co-led’, ‘co-design’ and ‘co-research’ are all terms used in the literature with distinct, but not precise, definitions and approaches. These collaborative models tend to describe methods that allow those with lived experience to be treated differently than other academic members of the research team. Power imbalances between those with lived experiences and researchers persist in such models, in spite of researcher efforts. For example, persons with lived experience are often described as being compensated with gift cards which may be welcomed but can be perceived as diminishing their role and contribution. In contrast, participatory team science involves persons with lived experience as full members of the research team. In the model that we propose, power is balanced through mutual planning and consensus-based decision-making. We contend that using participatory team science advances research through egalitarian consideration of team members' perspectives of the research problem and the designs necessary to knowledge development.