Posted by Peter van der Graaf, Associate Professor in Public Health & AskFuse Research Manager, and Mandy Cheetham, Research Fellow, from Northumbria University
While Storm Babette was
wreaking havoc in the UK, a team of international delegates from Tranzo, scientific
centre for care and wellbeing of Tilburg University visited Fuse. The visit focused on sharing learning on how
to develop and maintain collaborative research partnerships between policymakers,
health practitioners, communities and academic researchers.
Great visit from @TilburgU_Tranzo to the North East yesterday hosted by @fuse_online @gateshead and @EdbertsHouse to share international learning on #collaborative research partnerships between policymakers, health practitioners, communities and researchers. #KMb pic.twitter.com/iTCMggC1hG
— Peter van der Graaf 🇪🇺🇳🇱🇬🇧 (@pvandergraaf75) October 21, 2023
Tranzo works in Academic Collaborative Centres (ACCs),which
are sustainable partnerships between Tilburg University researchers and health
and care organisations at both a regional and national level, including (local)
government, third sector organisations and other research institutes. Tranzo
hosts in total 11 ACCs, each with a different topic area: ranging from mental
health, addiction, intellectual disability, to public health, youth, work &
health, social work, care for older adults, and technological and social
innovations for mental health. Each centre could be compared to a research cluster within Fuse and is led by an academic lead.
Despite the diversity in topics addressed in each centre, there are five underlying research themes:
- health-related behaviour, health care policies and societal influences;
- social inequality and inclusivity;
- mental health care, capabilities and recovery;
- client perspective and participation, experiential expertise, and;
- the (health) care system.
We could call these cross-cutting themes, and this
is something Fuse could consider to integrate research across clusters. For
example, translational research could act as a cross-cutting theme within Fuse.
The ACCs work in a similar way to Fuse: they connect science,
lived experience and professional practice in the domain of health and
wellbeing in the Netherlands through co-creation of research and knowledge
exchange. These diverse sources of knowledge are valued equally. The principles
of establishing long-term partnerships, based on equality, personal
relationships will also sound familiar to Fuse members.
During the discussions on the day, we reflected on the importance and challenges of blurring boundaries and the need for ‘living bridges’ between partners organisations. Personal and trusted relationships and a commitment to reciprocity were identified as key for this, but also the need for systems that support and incentivise collaborative working. Unfortunately, universities and research funding programmes are often not set up for this way of working, or narrowly confine knowledge exchange to commercial spin-off companies.
Blurring boundaries, science practitioners, and the fourth-generation university
One of the ways in which Tranzo has tried to blur boundaries
is by developing science practitioner roles, which are practitioners who take
up a temporary post in universities to develop their research skills and act as
boundary spanners for the knowledge they co-create within their practice
organisations. These roles can be funded by the health and care organisations (in
kind), as they recognise the importance of using more evidence to inform their decision
making, by blending scientific knowledge with the knowledge and expertise from
practitioners and service users. But sometimes also external funding (grants) is
available for co-creation projects with science practitioners. Sometimes it is a combination of in kind and grant funding.
This makes science practitioners the flip side of embedded
researchers in Fuse: instead of academic researchers co-locating temporarily in
a practice organisation (for example a public health team in a local authority)
practitioners spend time in academia, (partly) paid for by their organisation and
supported by academics to develop their own research. Both roles help to blur
boundaries and therefore science practitioners, which go beyond short-term
placements, could be a valuable role to consider for Fuse.
To support this two-way traffic between researchers and
practitioners, Tranzo has defined itself as a ‘developing towards a fourth-generation
university’: an open network university reaching out and working on innovation
with partners and citizens in an ecosystem. While first generation universities
are focused on education and second generation universities combine education
with research, third generation universities embrace entrepreneurship and try
to market their knowledge. However, this happens solely within the space of the
university (Steinbuch, 2016).
In contrast, fourth generation universities see themselves
as only one space within a wider knowledge eco-system that requires close
collaboration with all participants in this eco-system, including policymakers,
professionals and service users, but also private organisations, arts and creative
industries and international collaborations. Interestingly, the function of
senior leaders within fourth generation universities is not to manage processes
and structures, but to disrupt them. By disrupting existing practices, ways of
thinking, and valuing and using different types of knowledge, more value can be
created within the eco-system.
This perspective suggests an extended new role for Fuse: not
only trying to be a bridge between different worlds (research and practice) or
between different research infrastructures and networks within the North East
and North Cumbria - Applied Research Collaboration (ARC), Health Determinants Research Collaborations (HDRCs), and Research Support Service (RSS) - but actively disrupting the status quo by
building structures and processes to enable the creation of value through new
collaborative partnerships and by stimulating multi-actor innovation.
The new value that could be created in this way was clearly
visible during the two site visits on the day, when we were welcomed by staff
and community members at Edberts House and Gateshead Council. Embedded research
roles have shone a light in Gateshead on the importance of control for
residents, whose lives are often defined by a lack of control and influence over
decisions affecting their lives. Research helped them to learn from a
community-centred approach and use this learning to inform future planning. Council
staff felt more confident and skilled to develop their own research and evaluations
and implement solutions using this knowledge and the connections it helped to
create with external partners.
It was inspiring to hear from our colleagues in Tranzo and
share examples of our collaborative research. We had positive and fruitful
exchanges about our experiences, challenges and shared interests including training
in the craft of knowledge exchange, mentoring, engagement and impact. We look
forward to continuing the conversations and would be interested in any readers' thoughts
on how we can be more disruptive as Fuse researchers?
The view from Tranzo
Reflections from Prof. Dr. Ien van de Goor, Program leader Academic Collaborative Center Public Health, Tranzo and Tilburg University
Next in the afternoon program we were invited to Edberts
House and the Gateshead Council. The way the voice of the community is a
driving force in making Edberts House into a successful and valued community
project, was impressive to experience (as was the lovely lunch offered!).
The program was finalised by meeting with representatives of
Gateshead Council. The enthusiasm of the members from the Council's Public
Health team and the Fuse researchers was striking and made clear that direct
collaboration and co-creation between academic research and local authorities can contribute significantly to the uptake of evidence in public health policy
and practice.
So for Tranzo it was a very insightful and inspiring visit learning about Fuse collaborating with practice and sharing our ways of working and trying to be impactful with scientific research. We really look forward to exploring further opportunities to collaborate, co-create and share our thoughts on finding ways to be disruptive (for the better!)
