Research and development capacity building in allied health: rhetoric and reality

Allied health professional (AHP) research and development (R&D) locality groups were formed as part of a Northern and Yorkshire Regional R&D initiative in 1998 to provide infrastructure support for R&D, however, their sustainability has proved problematic. This paper charts the journey of one locality group and uses the research cycle model to illustrate an attempt to make interdisciplinary research capacity building in practice a reality. Collaborative development of a research proposal proved valuable, despite not gaining funding. An initiative to build research capacity in both qualified AHP staff and pre-registration Masters’ students in the context of research project supervision is being promoted as part of pre-registration Masters programmes at Northumbria University. Locality group members have formed a collaborative learning group to support research-minded practitioners. For those individuals who want to make the move from research consumer to researcher in practice, infrastructure support remains inadequate. Innovative intra- and inter-organizational models need to be explored.