Bringing evidence to bear on policy processes: the challenge of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute

The Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute (APHCRI) is part of the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development (PHCRED) strategy.1 The Institute was the most recent element of the PHCRED strategy to be established, beginning research activities following the appointment of the Research Advisory Board (RAB) in November 2003. APHCRI’s mission is to “provide national leadership in improving the quality and effectiveness of primary health care through the conduct of high quality priority-driven research and the support and promotion of best practice”.2 APHCRI has a specific focus on the links between primary health care evidence and policy. Its activities not only fund research programs, but also seek to build capacity within the research community and policy community to facilitate the adoption of evidence into policy. There are two important interdependent features in the APHCRI model adopted to fulfil this mission. Firstly, it is a “virtual” institute operating a “hub and spoke” model. The Institute comprises staff based at the Australian National University (the “hub”) and, within different streams of research activities, multiple “spokes” undertaking commissioned programs of research. Secondly, the Institute has a specific pool of funds to commission research — it both funds research and undertakes research. The Institute’s RAB sets the research priorities, oversees the independent assessment of applications for funding and determines the successful spokes. Groups compete to be commissioned within a particular stream of research, but, once successful, collaborate as part of the virtual institute. In this article, we provide an overview of the approach APHCRI