Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Moving research results into practice is a major social issue; an estimated $200B of research funding is wasted since evidence gets lost in the knowledge to action gap. This lack of knowledge application is similar in the field of disability research. One in five Canadian youth live with a disability. It is important for researchers to work with knowledge users, in this case youth with disabilities (YWD), to better understand respective needs and reasons for committing to collaborative research partnerships. This will help create research that is more likely to be used in practice to appropriately meet the needs of YWD and enhance service delivery within the Canadian healthcare system. To date, no studies describe in detail the interactions between YWD and researchers. The goal of this study is to examine YWD and researchers' perspectives on experiences and satisfaction with participation in research partnerships. This research is important as it responds to the call of citizens and ministries for consumer engagement in research to address their needs and preferences in order to facilitate application of evidence in practice. This study has two theory-driven phases. First, YWD and researchers will be interviewed to explore both parties' experiences, preferences, and levels of satisfaction in research partnerships over time. Results will assist in identifying key factors that enhance or impede partnerships. These key factors will be organized using a proven theory relevant to disability. Second, a literature review will identify current tools used to assess YWD and researcher partnerships in order to identify how this process is evaluated. Combined results from these two studies will provide new insights and knowledge on YWD and researchers' needs and can be used to enhance research partnerships thereby resulting in more relevant, useful and timely research that can be moved more quickly into practice and policy.