The mission of the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) is to contribute to the best practices and science of implementation, organizational change, and system reinvention to improve outcomes across the spectrum of human services. As such, it has been involved in advancing implementation practice through numerous initiatives over the…

Background: Embedded research involves co-locating researchers within non-academic organisations to better link research and practice. Embedded research initiatives are often complex and emergent with a range of underlying intents, structures and processes. This can create tensions within initiatives and contributes to ongoing uncertainty about…

Background: Over the past decade, research-based and evidence-informed decision-making have played increasingly important roles in influencing educational policy and impacting practices in education. The dissemination, implementation and sustainability of research-to-practice are thus fruitful topics for discussion. Even though, as Oliver and…

The authors of this report call on their colleagues to adopt "Public Impact Research" (PIR) as a broad label to describe how university research improves lives and serves society--locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Using PIR consistently along with fundamental discovery and training the next generation workforce communicates…

The administration and management of sponsored projects spans many levels within an institution of higher education. Research administration professionals require an operational understanding of a complex and intertwined set of disciplines that include project management, finance, legal, ethics, communication, and business acumen. The explicit…

This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research-practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership…

Purpose: In the higher education sector, the evaluation of learning and teaching projects is assuming a role as a quality and accountability indicator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning and teaching project evaluation is approached and critiques alignment between evaluation theory and practice. Design/Methodology/Approach:…

Research administration and leadership, above all, directly serve the needs of researchers, scientists, research programs, institutions and their leaders, and the public trust itself. Research administration is therefore an expansive and all encompassing profession. It integrates all of the diverse arts and sciences that are foundational to…

In response to Bulterman-Bos (2008), this article discusses three kinds of research needed in education: problem-finding research, which helps frame good research questions; problem-solving research, which helps illuminate educational problems; and translational work, which transforms the findings of research into tools that practitioners and…

Recent decades have witnessed a remarkable rise in the regulation of public services and servants, education being a case in point. External evaluation and inspection has been an important element of this trend. Increasingly, however as the limitations of external surveillance systems have become clear the concept of internal or self-evaluation…

Guidelines are offered for institutions seeking funds for applied research intended to lead to the commercialization of a product or process. Developed by the National Association of Home Builders' National Research Center, the guidelines suggest consideration of appropriate research performers, beneficiaries, risks, adoption of results, and…

The author describes her 30 years of experience in the design and conduct of a series of large-scale randomized controlled studies in the field of public welfare. She describes how these studies came about, what lessons can be drawn about research methods, what was learned about the effectiveness of these programs (the National Supported Work…

Although evidence-based practice (EBP) has received increasing attention in social work in the past few years, there has been limited success in moving from academic discussion to engaging social workers in the process of implementing EBP in practice. This article describes the challenges, successes, and future aims in the process of developing a…

Although multidisciplinary research teams are well-equipped to attack complex problems, actually succeeding in such endeavors is not easy. This paper explores problems that may arise in multidisciplinary research teams, develops a grounded theory, and offers suggestions to help teams reach their goals. It also offers advice to administrators for…

This reprinted 1970 article examines the need for and the education of college and university research administrators. The article stresses the need for research administrators to have knowledge of basic business theory and practice; a feeling for research theory and practice; an ability to work with funding agencies; and understanding of how…