Connecting what we do with what we know: building a community of research and practice

How to think about, develop, maintain and optimize connections between research and practice remains a vexed and contested area in the increasingly complex multidisciplinary and inter-professional practice that constitutes contemporary healthcare and service delivery. A body of literature challenging linear and passive notions of research uptake has emerged which views research uptake as a dynamic, contextualized and active process. This paper explores the development of a successful and exciting community of research and practice involving a university and an aged care organization in Australia. The community of research and practice is premised on dynamic, contextual and active interaction between research and practice; where the categories of research and practice are not mutually exclusive or static; and where community is more than just a structure to facilitate collaborative research projects. It is proposed that the idea of a community of research and practice is a useful one in terms of seeking to better understand and provide strategies for knowledge translation between researchers and practitioners and those who are both.