Better Together - The Essential Components of the Integrated Knowledge Translation Collaborative Process for an Interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Project in Environmental Health

• Author / Creator

  Wine, Osnat

• Academia has transformed research to be more collaborative to address complex questions such as understanding the relationship between human health and the environment. Such collaborations harness diverse expertise and perspectives of various stakeholders including researchers, practitioners, decision makers and other knowledge users to ground and enhance the depth and breadth of research and promote translational efforts. One such collaborative approach is Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT), which promotes the application of research findings by building partnerships between researchers and knowledge users throughout the entire research process. Many acknowledge the benefits of research collaborations to the creation and translation of knowledge; however, there is a growing interest and need to understand what shapes these research partnerships. Different assets are available for a research project at the outset, such as the vision, resources, frameworks, and individuals’ expertise, experience, curiosity, attitudes, and will. These ingredients form the foundations for team growth, but more needs to occur.
  The objective of the thesis was to understand the essential components of the collaborative process of IKT for an interdisciplinary and knowledge user-oriented collaborative research project, and how these processes manifest and evolve in real-life research collaboration.
  This qualitative case study followed the Data Mining & Neonatal Outcomes (DoMiNO) project engrained in the context of environmental health research, over its five years of operation. Participants of the study included all 24 DoMiNO team members. Data were collected and generated through interviews, focus groups, surveys, and participant observations, for which I conducted an iterative analysis process using inductive thematic analysis procedures. Data and analysis contributed to the cumulative understanding of the case, the essential components of the collaborative research process, and the IKT evolution of the case.
  The thesis provides the background on collaborative research in the context of environmental health, descriptions of the case (including its context and challenges), and the eight essential components identified; including their meanings, dimensions, and how they manifested in the DoMiNO project.
  The partnership evolved by establishing friendly and collegial relationships, advancing individual growth, and building team capacity, which require the maintenance of alignment, keeping everyone on the same page, regarding progress, expectations, and knowledge. These steps were fundamental to establishing trust in each other and in procedures and outcomes, for the project’s progression. Developing individuals’ sense of shared ownership was also important, leading to the performance and production of new knowledge, and the development and implementation of the KT plan. Furthermore, operative elements fostered the evolution of the collaborative climate. These included maintaining communication channels, creating a supportive environment for learning, ensuring an inclusive setting, and embracing an attentive leadership style that sets the tone for the collaborative process. Additionally, individual attitudes played a role in supporting the collaborative climate through individuals’ commitment of time and attention to the project, engaging in active dialogue and reflection, and keeping an open mind towards other epistemologies.
  Together, all the identified components created collaborative climate conditions, which contributed to growth and achievements. In different situations, these components hindered or facilitated the project’s progression. Moreover, each one of these components was interconnected as part of a web and impacted each other as the project progressed. Thus, the evolution of the IKT collaborative process was achieved by the components directly and indirectly as a cumulative effect that supported the team performance, productivity, co-creation, outcomes, and KT.
  Based on both the researchers and knowledge users’ perspectives, this empiric study contributes to current literature by providing an in-depth description of individual and collaborative team processes in which interdisciplinarity and IKT are managed for the co-production of knowledge and KT. This study illuminates essential components of collaborative research and their joint evolution as one comprehensive evolutionary process, and their contribution to shaping, implementing, and maintaining IKT. The study focused on research collaboration in environmental health research, which was unique in its context, but one that may be similar to other projects regarding the processes and conditions required to enable a collaborative climate. Hence, learnings from the case and the empirical evidence this case provides may be valuable to researchers, funders, and practitioners from different research fields.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Integrated knowledge translation
  • Collaborative research
  • Qualitative
  • Environmental health
  • Case study

• Graduation date

  Fall 2020

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-6qby-2209

• License

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