VicHealth Research Strategy 2019–2023

Health promotion research is essential for understanding the factors that drive preventable disease and informing the design of interventions that are needed to prevent illness and promote health.

Download: VicHealth Research Strategy 2019–2023 (PDF, 100 KB)

Click here to download a Plain English version of this document (DOCX, 122 KB)

Since 2013, VicHealth has contributed more than $31 million to a wide range of research projects, including investigator-driven and commissioned research. This includes commissioning the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to examine the current and projected risk factor burden in Victoria (VicHealth 2019), which is based on the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2015 (AIHW 2019). The study’s results provide us with valuable insights for planning health promotion policy and interventions in Victoria.

A 2018 review of our research program has led to a greater focus on impact, prioritising research projects that generate new evidence for direct application to health promotion policy and practice.

Focus areas

Applying research for impact and scale

Although research evidence describing public health problems is plentiful, research that guides implementation of policy and practice is lacking (Wolfenden et al. 2015). Supporting research that informs policy and practice is critical to maximising the effectiveness of our research program and delivering community benefit. To strengthen the impact and scale of our research, we will:

• better orient our research grants program to support proposals that focus on outcomes with practical application
• investigate how to maximise the potential for our research grants to be scaled.

What will success look like?
More VicHealth research grants that directly inform changes to policy and practice.

Supporting the development of research partnerships

Linking the expertise of researchers with the practical experience of health promotion practitioners in the development and delivery of research will help maximise the relevance, timeliness and application of research findings. To foster partnerships for research, we will:

• strengthen the requirements of our research grants process so that applications require partnerships between researchers and practitioners and policymakers
• facilitate collaboration between VicHealth, researchers, policymakers and health promotion practitioners to accelerate the translation of research into practice.

What will success look like?

• More VicHealth grants to partnership-based projects
• More partnerships that accelerate the translation of research findings into action

Increasing the flow of knowledge from research to practice

Translating knowledge into practice is a process that is dynamic and involves interaction between the context, researchers and end users of research knowledge.

To facilitate effective knowledge translation, we will:

• leverage policy and practitioner insights to focus research priorities on evidence gaps
• refine mechanisms for timely availability and use of all research outputs to support impact.

What will success look like?
Greater funding of research that fills the evidence gaps and better dissemination of research findings to enhance their impact.

Other resources

References: Download the VicHealth Research Strategy 2019–2023 PDF for a full list of references.