Our approach is inclusive and collaborative. It can be summed up as Passionate People Included Everywhere (thanks to Pauline Mountain from the ARC’s PPIE group for this description). Echoing our funder’s approach, we believe that:
“effective dissemination is simply about getting the findings of your research to the people who can make use of them, to maximise the benefit of the research without delay”.
However, it’s wrong to think this is a simple, quick or easy thing to do. It is a collective and collaborative effort. It requires a combination of different knowledges and allowing these to work together for a common goal. Making an impact through research – our desired goal - is a team effort. The NIHR ARC East Midlands approach to closing the gap between research and practice is summarised in our Knowledge Translation Strategy, which can be downloaded here.
“We are all custodians of impact; we each have a piece of the puzzle. Impact is a brokered, negotiated and connective art, achieved by and for people in a myriad of ways. And it’s a team game. We each have skills, perspectives, experiences, networks and ideas which can contribute to an impact cauldron of possibilities”.