Allied Health Insights Vol. 1, No.20: Research Capacity Building

In this edition, we look at research capacity building in allied health from three perspectives—from the ‘front line’, in a low resource context, and from a management viewpoint.

Allied health research capacity building is a long game, where collaboration and responsiveness are key. Monash University allied health researcher and manager of research capability building with Western Alliance, Dr Olivia King reflects on the last five years of her work in research capacity building and shares some of her key learnings.

We look at multi-level approaches for building research capacity, what a resource-poor setting looks like, and the strategies that can be used to build capacity in these types of settings. This is highly relevant for individuals and organisations concerned with, or leading research capacity building initiatives in health settings.

How can allied health managers foster an environment conducive to research capacity building? Managers are central to the organisational research culture and climate, but not all have research skills, knowledge, or experience. Consequently they may lack the confidence to support research activity including research translation. We show that managers don’t need to have PhDs or be experienced researchers to support a positive team and organisational research culture—find out more in our 7 Ways To Be A Research Enabling Manager feature.

Under the microscope for the latest A to Z of Allied Health: we do a PCR test on medical scientists, members of a critical yet somewhat invisible allied health profession—medical scientists have continued to play an essential role in tracking viral mutations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As mentioned in our previous edition, we’ve updated our website, adding a simple interface for you to post career announcements, service directory listings, and events straight to the site, or ask your peers to answer your burning allied health question on our forum.

Our recently-launched Service Directory is a hub for businesses to promote their services directly to allied health professionals and organisations, and we’d like to offer each of our subscribers a free four week trial. Following the trial period, you can continue your listing for as little as $125 per annual subscription. Please email editorial@hwitl.com to find out more.