Finding the heart of a Research-Practice Partnership: Politicized trust, mutualism, and use of research

The assumption that research is out-of-reach, irrelevant, or unusable for practitioners has been a theme echoed throughout academia. Research alliances such as Research-Practice Partnerships (RPP) attempt to alleviate this problem by having researchers, practitioners, and/or community-based organizations form a collaborative partnership that uses research to solve tangible problems of practice. Previous works have highlighted the complexities inherent with forming and maintaining these long-term partnerships including politics, trust building, time, and available resources. In this paper, we engage in reflective analysis of our own RPP around three key elements we believe are at the heart of RPPs: politicized trust, mutualism, and use of research. This paper illustrates successes and points of failure in each of these areas, which have been previously unconnected in RPP literature. We conclude with recommendations for school and university partners and future research on RPPs.

Competitive Risaralda, generating research alliances for development

El presente libro lleva como título “Risaralda competitiva, generando alianzas en investigación para el desarrollo”, resultado del V encuentro de investigadores del departamento de Risaralda realizado en el mes de noviembre del año 2020. Evento en el cual se presentaron las últimas investigaciones realizadas en las diferentes instituciones educativas del departamento; quienes hacen parte de la Mesa de Investigaciones de Risaralda; ejercicio de gran interés que arroja resultados de investigaciones en diferentes áreas como son las Ciencias Agrícolas, Ciencias sociales, Ciencias de la salud, Ciencias de la tecnología y la información.

Study on the Role of Government in the Alliance of Industry, Education and Research

Economic globalization has greatly promoted the development and integration of global industries and greatly intensified competition and cooperation among enterprises in various countries. On the basis of combing the practical characteristics of the industrial, education and research alliances in various developed countries, this paper makes a comprehensive study on the role that the government should play in the process of the industrial, education and research alliances in China, and puts forward that the government should flexibly use the means of finance, finance and taxation in the industrial, academic and research alliances and play a leading role.

Gender equality in marine sciences in Kiel, Germany: how project-funded measures can urge institutions to act

In Kiel, in the north of Germany, marine research is rooted in a lively research community hosted mainly at Kiel University and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre. While the ratio of women and men is more or less balanced on all qualification levels with mainly nonpermanent junior positions, women are generally underrepresented in leading research positions. The problem of gender imbalance and inequality has been well-known for a long time. Especially in the last decade, however, manifold efforts were initiated to improve gender equality on a political and institutional level as well as within the research community itself. In our article we focus on the gender equality activities of the two large externally funded marine sciences research alliances: the Cluster of Excellence “The Future Ocean” and the Collaborative Research Centre 754 “Climate–Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean”. For about a decade they offered both financial provisions and a structural framework to tackle the problem of women's underrepresentation in science and came up with innovative measures. In the following case study, we not only introduce the situation of women in marine sciences in Kiel and the structural arrangement to improve gender equality in general, but we also discuss three specific measures developed within the two collaborative research projects in detail: (i) the mentoring program via:mento_ocean for female postdocs, (ii) hiring policies integrating a gender quota for recruiting postdoctoral researchers and (iii) a code of conduct. Based on these best-practice examples we can show that progress towards gender equality has been made despite some obstacles faced when implementing the measures. This was especially the case for attracting female researchers to work in Kiel marine sciences and bringing the relevance of the topic to the surface of debates within the community. Looking at gender equality activities from a managerial point of view, we conclude from the situation in Kiel, where external funding for both research alliances ended in 2019, that even time-bound activities can initiate change. Initiatives developed by the marine sciences community were taken up by other research groups and inspired new activities at the level of the institutions involved.

A Systematic Review of Key Factors in the Effectiveness of Multisector Alliances in the Public Health Domain

Objective: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to assess the factors associated with synergistic multisector alliances in the public health domain. Data Source: Articles in PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Google Scholar between March 2009 and February 2019 were searched. Study Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: Included alliances had a public health and behavioral focus, were from the public or private sector, and were multipartner and multisector, and from high-income countries. Public health research alliances were included, but clinical research alliances were excluded. Data Extraction: Data extraction included alliance description, alliance domain, country, single or multiple alliances, and the sectors included in the alliance. Two theoretical frameworks were used in data extraction. Data Synthesis: Data were coded according to 28 factors representing antecedents, management, and evaluation (Parent and Harvey model) and 3 output-specific factors (Bergen model). Results: A final 24 papers were included, of which 58% contained synergistic alliances. While almost all factors reportedly enabled synergy, some factors were more frequently associated with synergistic alliances, including clear purpose and positive coordination, information sharing, and evaluation of project outcomes. Complexity within some factors was also reported. Conclusion: The theoretical models were supported by the data. Public health alliances would likely benefit from incorporating factors identified as beneficial for synergy and from carefully considering the management of complex factors.