Table 3 Qualitative synthesis of research engagement strategies outlined in all included studies

Research trained/skill staff within health care settings

Including research-trained staff embedded/integrated within practice settings. Staff may be located physically and/or included into service delivery teams and /or organisational governance positions to facilitate enhanced research and service delivery

Research-practice roles (i.e. nurse researcher; clinical nurse research consultant; physician-scientist; lecturer practitioner); creating new positions i.e. positions for research fellows; executive nursing positions, financial support (salaries); funded/guaranteed research time; secondments ( i.e. a joint position hired by practice and university, co-location of staff exchange of staff ( i.e. clinical teaching to the students in exchange for research support and clinical staff’s opportunities for continuing education), fellowships/positions to undertake research activity as part of their role (e.g. Service Delivery Management Fellowship programme [59]

3

Resources/infrastructure

Provision of resources dedicated for research activity. This includes the availability of specific tools, funding, administrative support and mentoring specifically allocated to research activity

Provision of print/online journal subscription; available research space (desk, computer, software); information technology support; stats support; facilities; equipment; maintenance; research support centre; data collection tools; data infrastructure; admin support; on-site research supervisors; support research staff; research coordinators, ethics application support, ethics application process streamlined across partner sites; standard operating procedures where research can be bedded into practice; common quality assurance mechanisms to support evaluation; organisational support in collaborative development of research proposals, funding for dissemination (conferences, open access publications); access to local funding for ongoing use

90

Organisational incentive and rewards

Financial or non-financial rewards for undertaking research or non-tangible incentives such as increase in stature. This strategy seeks to recognise formally clinician’s time needed to undertake research activity and puts in place structures that enable this

Reimbursements for undertaking research; credits toward professional licenses; scholarship and paid research placements, dedicated research grants, bursaries; PhD tuition support and scholarships, awards, honours; public recognition of research excellence, flexible working arrangements/job descriptions (re-adjusted per research project needs); flexible salaries for PhD training

10

Leadership supportive of research

Commitment, involvement, accountability of leaders and managers to support research. This includes strategies to ensure leadership buy in and support for research activity

Leadership formally endorsing research (i.e. this includes a strategic plan that reflects a strong commitment to developing research activity and research capacity), leadership in building research questioning and uncertainty into clinical service’s culture. Managerial support by releasing practitioner time to undertake research

62

Education/training/capacity building

This includes providing research capacity building opportunities and specifically targets the knowledge, skills and self-efficacy of practitioners to undertake research

Provision of a range of training and research capacity building activities including online training; seminars; workshop; professional development, one-on-one advice/meetings; role modelling; local champions/behavioural coaches; simulation; experiential learning; mentoring (including, peer mentoring and senior staff/expert mentoring); supervision; teaching opportunities; research forum and conferences lecture series; journal clubs

Support to obtain formal qualifications/training

Participatory Action Research cycle used for capacity building/engagement: Observe-Act-Plan-Reflect used to encourage practitioners to initiate and lead res projects in their areas of interest

Supporting medical students to undertake research (mentoring, summer research fellowships, research portals)

93

Networks and communication

This strategy targets the nature and quality of social networks and the nature and quality of formal and informal communications. It recognises the research engagement is enhanced by academic collaborations and formal communication activities

Forums/conferences/multi-disciplinary workshops, curricula, meetings, seminars aimed at building relationship and collaboration, site inspections; joint PhD student supervision between practice and academic institutions, projects and technologies shared between collaborators; committees with institutional representation from a range of organisations, engagement and communication activities for research uptake with a range of end-user organisations

7

Partnership/collaborations between practice and academic institutions

The extent of partnership and collaboration with academic institutions. It moves beyond consultant-based approaches to formal joint research collaboration and activities

Leveraging material and in-kind resources to achieve shared goals; joint plans for implementation of projects; shared governance and leadership of research projects (i.e. executive committee with membership from all organisations, co-chaired steering committee; board of governors; collaborative agreements; formal written contract signed between institutions)

12

A formal research-practice entity that is government funded

These are established formal structures in which roles formalised to enhance partnerships between universities and health care systems to facilitate clinician-led research

Examples include Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLARHC) in the UK ($88 million pound commitment over five years with the requirement that each CLARCH match the funding from local NHCS organisations)

3