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Yes / Originally presented at the Pharmacy Education Conference. Jun 24, Manchester, UK.

This study focuses on the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) modelled on a federal, collegiate university based on a number of existing and geographically dispersed Further Education (FE) colleges and research institutions. The inclusion of FE colleges and their geographical dispersal distinguishes it from most mainstream institutions. The UHI was heralded by its advocates as a distinctively radical enterprise designed to meet the fast-moving challenges of the twenty-first century by embracing new technologies and overcoming geographical barriers. After attaining Higher Education (HE) status in 2001, the policy goal of fostering a research culture emerged as a prominent concern for the UHI. This study explores the policy drive to foster such a research culture, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2008. The study was informed by a constructivist grounded theory methodological approach and the data gathering included twenty-six semi-structured interviews to ascertain how this policy drive was received within the UHI partners. The study found that a unified research culture was not perceived to have embedded throughout the partners, with the exception of one or two research institutions where it can be said to have pre-existed. Against this backdrop, the study identified emerging discourses encapsulating how the policy drive was perceived by a wide spectrum of different actors throughout the UHI. Two different types of performativity discourses proved to be central in shaping the policy aspiration, namely a ‘RAE performativity discourse’ and a ‘Further Education (FE) performativity discourse’. Both discourses can be seen to have influenced the trajectory of research expansionist policy within the UHI by setting up a normative space privileging certain identities, subjectivities and associated actions at the expense of others. In highlighting both the structural and socio-cultural barriers to the policy of promoting research, the study aims to contribute to wider debates on institutional policies for building research capacity in a dual sector/hybrid institutional setting. In terms of offering direct benefits to the UHI, by analysing the different sort of assumptions and realities that shape the meaning of a research culture within the UHI, this study may help inform future policy making on research expansion within UHI partners. The study concludes by making a number of practical recommendations which the author believes will help move research from the periphery to a more central stage within the UHI partners.

This thesis offers a mixed-method exploratory investigation of global scientific mobility. Contextualised as an important factor in the development of national capacities in science and innovation, global scientific mobility has so far remained a relatively underdeveloped subject in current scholarship. In this doctoral research, the focus on the impact of global scientific mobility that entails change of affiliation on (1) research practice, in particular, boundaries of academic activities, and (2) career development trajectories, increasingly affected by globalisation, is assumed. This research responds to the interest among academic and policy communities in the role of human resources in science-driven economic growth. It integrates three sets of literature, encompassing systems approach to studying learning and innovation; transnational approach to migration studies, and social studies of science that focus on academic citizenship, to explain global transformations in scientific mobility flows across countries and regions; and the post-migration impact of scientists in host organisations and communities. Empirically, this research focuses on career trajectories and elements of academic practice of Russian-speaking nanoscientists educated in post-Soviet countries and working abroad. The Soviet Union was an internationally isolated research system and developed peculiar norms of organisation, communication and governance of science. After the breakdown, post-Soviet countries experienced large-scale human capital flight. Nanotechnology is a generic technology, thought to aggregate advanced use-inspired areas of physics, chemistry and engineering. Around the world, nanotechnology has significant political importance. Policy and public-driven emerging technology agendas reveal contribution of competent post-Soviet scientists, but also elicit differences in approaches and rewards. This study finds significant transformations in scientific mobility flows caused by globalisation-induced opportunities. As relocation becomes easier to accomplish, scientists increasingly build their careers not only in multiple organisations, but also in multiple countries. At the same time, national differences in career development paths and norms of academic community membership have significant influence on career development opportunities of scientists. However, unique skills developed during mobility open up alternative options for globally mobile Russian-speaking nanoscientists, such as engagement in transnational science diaspora networks. This research contributes to understanding of scientific mobility as a simultaneous, continuous, network-based process. It further provides insight into development of multidisciplinary research area that encompasses broader understanding of roles, activities, contributions and opportunities of foreign-born scientists in the globalising world.

The fieldwork for this study was conducted in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia between 1997 and 1999. Qualitative and quantitative information provided by 170 Aboriginal participants enabled an exploration of the context and patterns of Aboriginal alcohol use; Aboriginal perceptions of the alcohol issue, existing interventions, research findings, 'culture' and its role in prevention and intervention; and participants' incorporation of these perceptions into an Aboriginal model for alcohol misuse prevention, intervention and evaluation. Findings were based on the results of individual and focus group interviews, serial model-planning focus groups, documentary data and observation.Study findings generally suggest that in addition to self-determination and support components, 'cultural context' retains an important role for many remote area Aboriginal people. The findings from a small sub-sample tentatively suggest that 'cultural' disruption, in addition to the socio-economic consequences of colonisation and dispossession, may play an important role in alcohol misuse. Consequently, it appears that in combination with self-determination and support components, the strengthening of a locally-defined 'cultural' context may have an important role in alcohol misuse prevention and intervention - an approach frequently unrepresented in existing symptom-focused models and one inviting further investigation. The model developed by study participants expands significantly on existing symptom-focused approaches through a comprehensive life-enhancement focus on aspects of identity, opportunity and hope. This approach adds depth and meaning to understandings of cultural appropriateness and of culturally relevant models for substance misuse prevention and intervention.

Nurses as professionals and front-liners in patient care should possess good knowledge about health research, as this is critical in improving patient outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes that public health clinic nurses possess regarding health research in Botswana in order to make recommendations to enhance a research culture among nurses. A quantitative study with a cross-sectional study design was used. Twenty-six clinics in Gaborone were sampled and 168 nurses participated in the survey. Data was analysed using Stata version 15.1. Only 51% of the nurses demonstrated satisfactory knowledge of health research. Despite this limited knowledge, nurses had a good attitude towards health research (66%). Degree nurses were more likely to have satisfactory knowledge, as were those who reported research training and experience. Additionally, research training and experience were associated with a good attitude. Recommendations include provision of research training and practicums as part of the nursing education curriculum, as well as in-service training, in order to improve the levels of knowledge of health research among nurses. / Health Studies / M. P. H.

Academic leadership in higher education in the 21st century is very different and more multifaceted than it was just a decade ago. Thus, given the multilayered, dynamic nature of higher education leadership at individual, group and organisational levels, a more nuanced understanding of its role in driving excellent research performance remains paramount. Hence, this study explores the professional and personal nature of research leadership that enables and stimulates high quality research performance. The research explores the research career pathways of ten researchers from various disciplinary fields who had been rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa and who were recommended by their education institutions as research leaders. The ten leaders were each interviewed about their research careers. Postgraduate students (47 in total) whom they had supervised were invited to answer an email questionnaire about their personal experiences of the leaders’ mentorship and leadership. In addition, information about the leaders and mentees was obtained from various documents such as curriculums vitae, research training records, institutional annual reports and web sites. The data collected and analysed in the study showed that the research career pathways of the research leaders were highly diverse and were affected in various ways by the historicalpolitical and social context of South Africa. However, across the career pathways, the research leaders had the following features in common: 1) the presence of strong research-centeredness throughout all career phases; 2) they lead by example of personal scholarship and intellectual leadership; 3) their research is locally relevant and globally competitive; and 4) their personal dynamics influence a confident and dynamic people-centred leadership approach. The most notable differences in research leadership across the sample could be traced to disciplinary contexts which ranged from distributed leadership across large teams and entrepreneurial networks to the more prevalent one-on-one mentor-mentee relationships. Leaders who were most influential in driving research performance were highly regarded scholars with extensive academic experience, had served a variety of leadership roles, confidently embraced the complexity of academic leadership and created stimulating research environments. The research also reveals a number of challenges that still remain for research leadership in addressing the human resource transformation requirements of the South African higher education research context. These include issues of 1) individualism and competition; 2) equity and excellence; 3) race and gender; and 4) research career exit and entry paths. The South African higher education system is characterised by pockets of scientific excellence in some disciplinary fields, as illustrated by the career trajectories of leaders in this study, but much work remains to be done in order to build a fully representative research-performing professoriate for South Africa. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

À l’instar des autres disciplines de la santé, la profession chiropratique doit poursuivre ses efforts pour maintenir sa crédibilité et sa reconnaissance. À cette fin, il est essentiel de renforcer les bases scientifiques de la chiropratique par une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes et une validation de l’efficacité de l’intervention chiropratique. Cependant, plusieurs obstacles compliquent la recherche clinique en chiropratique. Le recrutement de cliniciens et d’un grand nombre de patients représente un défi de taille. Un réseau de recherche basée sur la pratique (RRBP) pourrait permettre de relever ces défis. Les RRBP sont des réseaux où les chiropraticiens collaborent avec les patients et les chercheurs. Ce projet vise à développer le premier réseau de recherche clinique chiropratique au Québec. Pour y parvenir, nous avons invité les 1323 chiropraticiens de l’Ordre des chiropraticiens du Québec (OCQ) à se joindre au Réseau québécois de recherche clinique en chiropratique (RQRCC) en 2015. Près de 200 chiropraticiens ont accepté d’en devenir membres. La structure du RQRCC a été établie en incluant un comité exécutif de quatre chercheurs et deux étudiants et un comité consultatif de neuf membres représentant différents groupes d’intérêt. Ce dernier contribue à assurer que les projets sont pertinents pour l’avancement de la pratique clinique. Cette infrastructure de recherche permettra la mise en œuvre d’études cliniques à grande échelle sur les troubles musculo-squelettiques et sur d’autres thèmes utiles pour la profession chiropratique. Le RQRCC facilitera également l'implantation des lignes directrices cliniques, le transfert des connaissances et l’évaluation de l’impact des stratégies entourant ce transfert de connaissances. Au bout du compte, ces efforts collectifs contribueront à l’amélioration de la pratique et, ultimement, de la santé des patients. Le RQRCC fait aussi partie d’un méta-réseau canadien. Il est donc attendu que cette initiative nationale mène des études de plus grande envergure afin de généraliser les résultats à l’ensemble de la population et de contribuer à l’amélioration de la santé des Canadiens. / Like all other health disciplines, the chiropractic profession needs to continue its efforts to improve its credibility and recognition. For this purpose, it is important to develop its scientific basis. Chiropractic needs to understand and validate the mechanism and effectiveness of its treatment approach. However, several challenges complicate chiropractic clinical research, such as the recruitment of qualified clinicians with interest for research, and the recruitment of patients. The Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN) approach could be a way to circumvent many of these challenges. PBRNs are networks where health professionals collaborate with patients and researchers. This project aims to develop the first chiropractic clinical research network in Quebec. For this purpose, in 2015, we invited the 1323 chiropractors of the Quebec Chiropractic licensing body to join the Réseau québécois de recherche clinique en chiropratique (Quebec Chiropractic Clinical Research Network (RQRCC)). Nearly 200 chiropractors have agreed to become members. The RQRCC is composed of an executive committee of four researchers and two students, and an advisory committee, of nine members representing different interest groups whose role is to ensure that projects are relevant to the advancement of chiropractic science. This research infrastructure, which is still under development, will enable the implementation of large-scale clinical studies on musculoskeletal disorders and other themes relevant to the chiropractic profession. This network will evaluate the impact of knowledge transfer strategies and facilitate the implementation of clinical guidelines. We believe that these actions will contribute to the improvement of patients’ health. In summary, this clinical research network will create, make accessible and transmit the best scientific evidence to its members and eventually to the entire chiropractic community. The network is also part of a Canadian meta-network. This national initiative is expected to conduct larger studies in order to generalize results to the entire population and to contribute to improving the health of Canadians.

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