Developing sustainable knowledge partnerships: Joining the DOTS between inter-organisational research

Commissioned research projects are commonplace in the UK between National Health Service (NHS) Trusts and universities to advance knowledge and inform practice. However, establishing sustainable research relationships between such differing and large organisations is seldom considered. This position paper describes our experience of developing and sustaining such a relationship. By detailing how we, as academics and NHS leaders, experienced our participation in leading and doing the research, we developed a shared understanding of why our collaboration is effective. From our reflections, we developed DOTS: Deciding together, Optimising outcomes, Time to get to know one another and Sharing knowledge and skills. This paper details how we worked through inter-organisational complexity by applying DOTS. The time taken to apply DOTS across inter-organisational contexts can develop team efficiency and enhance its effectiveness. DOTS provides a framework to enrich professional relationships and informs cooperative conversations, leading to agreed action. Our intention is to share our experience to inspire, stimulate and inform academic and practice-based colleagues to work together to produce high-quality and sustainable knowledge partnerships.<p></p>