Access Keys:
Multi-disciplinary team increases opportunities for new pathways
“Our pathways to impact developed over the course of the grant. We became ambitious to do more than just simple dissemination of our research. We engaged with these groups at our seminars and conferences, but the follow-on project was born out of an idea that we could use our experience to bridge some of these gaps between these organisations and make recommendations for better and more coherent guidance.“ - Professor Margot Brazier, University of Manchester
For Professor Margot Brazier, co-director of the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy at the University of Manchester, one of these most important and often overlooked aspects of creating and exploring pathways to impact lies with the composition of the research team. “Ours is a multi-disciplinary team and we bring together different strengths and contacts. By working collaboratively we are able to pool our resources and build on established links. It gives us an advantage when it comes to getting research partners on board.”
Professor Brazier, along with Professor Andrew Sanders, was co-investigator on a three-and -a-half-year AHRC research grant that looked at the way in which the criminal justice system is used to resolve ethical conflicts in the delivery of healthcare. The research explored ethically sensitive issues and required access to confidential data. Its success depended on building close and constructive working relationships between the research team and a range of external partners.
“When you are doing research with an organisation it should never feel as though they are having the research ‘done to them’. We have involved the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), doctors, coroners and the police in every aspect of this project: inviting them to all of our seminars and meetings, not restricting their participation to the ones we think may be relevant,” says Professor Brazier.
She admits that it was not all plain sailing and that the team’s negotiation and diplomatic skills had to be applied at times. But a commitment to an inclusive approach and a focus on face-to-face interaction has helped the project team create good working relationships with the partners. This in turn has contributed to their success in securing a one-year follow-on grant to produce recommendations and tools for medical practitioners and to improve the collaborative practices between police, coroners and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
Professor Brazier points out that the flipside of pathways to impact is creating ’pathways into academia’. She finds that there is a real appetite among the research partners to be involved in the academic side and they appreciate the space to reflect on what they do. “This is important because people are giving up their time and you are adding to their workload, but there is something in it for them too. It is your responsibility to make their pathway into academia enjoyable and most of all useful,” she says.
Institution: University of Manchester
Funding council: AHRC