Future of the Armed Forces Research Integrator: Programme Integration and Knowledge Exchange Strategy

There is great potential for synergy and added value across the four research projects funded under the Future of the Armed Forces Call. Integration of the research with related academic, policy and practitioner activities requires formal planning, practical coordination and on-going engagement with users and the wider stakeholder community. Our approach offers transparency of undertakings with an emphasis on interaction, dialogue and feedback. There are four key dimensions of our approach: i) pragmatic integration; ii) scientific integration; iii) policy and practitioner engagement; and iv) impact evaluation.
Pragmatic integration is required to facilitate day to day working across a team of civilian and military colleagues dispersed throughout the UK and will include:
*acting as key point of contact for all partners, including the Ministry of Defence (MOD), British Army and ESRC;
*on-going liaison with nominated partners through regular telephone contact, weekly email updates, monthly virtual and six-monthly face to face meetings;
*developing an agreed work plan containing key milestones and events across the four research projects and the integration strategy;
*leading the programme including finalizing the workplan and agreeing terms of reference for the integrator role and Standard Operating Procedures;
*delivering robust information management including a database of relevant academic and grey literature;
*management of six monthly reporting as required by the funding partners.
Scientific integration will maximize the value of the four separate projects and support effective knowledge exchange (KE). This will include:
*coordination of applications for formal ethical approval and discussion of ethical issues throughout the timeline of the programme;
*synchronization, as appropriate, of sampling strategies and data collection methods to ensure complementarity not overlap;
*conducting and sharing scoping reviews and publication thereof;
*developing plans for sharing results and meta-analyses and delivering across programme outputs for both academic and other audiences;
*organising academic collaboration workshops to ensure this scientific integration.
Policy and practitioner engagement will raise awareness of the research programme amongst key influencers and decision makers in areas including defence, health, employment and family policy and practice and utilising the most up to date KE tools to support uptake of the research. This will enable reciprocal sharing of information regarding relevant developments in both research and policy that may require consideration over the course of the programme. Our integration strategy will utilise stakeholder mapping to ensure all key relationships are targeted. This will inform appropriate translation of research for specific audiences given the key role of relationships and networks as mechanisms for research uptake. Aspects of this engagement will include:
*a programme advisory group to review the overall integration and engagement strategy, and assist with shaping research outputs for specific audiences;
*a KE plan identifying and mapping specific stakeholder groups and how they will be engaged with the projects;
*contextual analysis to understand where and how the best impact from the four projects can be achieved;
*first point of contact for the wider stakeholder community to ensure access to a diverse range of information sources and perspectives;
*identification of capacity building activities and strategies for longer term learning and development;
*a communication plan utilizing a range of relevant tools.
Impact evaluation will be undertaken over the course of the programme to provide formative feedback and summative evaluation. We will consult with key stakeholder groups to inform and integrate pathways to impact and undertake empirical evaluation to assess the impact of research and KE in this programme.