From The Lowitja Institute

The Lowitja Institute is Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research. It is the only research organisation in Australia with a sole focus on the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The institute is governed by a skills-based board, with a majority Aboriginal membership. Currently hosting the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, our collaborative approach to research has developed over three iterations of CRCs since 1997 (Med J Aust 2011; 194: 532-534). This approach to research is known as the facilitated development approach. It ensures that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations have a strong voice throughout the research process; from setting the agenda, formulating the questions and participating in the research to, most importantly, translating research knowledge into evidencebased policy and practice. In Darwin on 4–5 June 2012, the Lowitja Institute hosted three roundtable discussions to identify research questions targeting better health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The three roundtables explored nutrition, telehealth, and environmental health and housing research for the Northern Territory. Each prioritised research questions to be further developed. The entire process was participative and involved collaboration between researchers and the end users of research. Of the 44 participants, a third were from Aboriginal organisations, a third from research organisations, and the remainder from other non-government organisations and government. We will publish the resulting research priorities at www.lowitja.org.au in July, and will encourage research collaborations to start developing these into grant applications to the National Health and Medical Research Council and other funding bodies. This is the first time we have used the facilitated development approach to specifically inform external grant applications rather than our own funded research. We want our collaborative development approach to be used more widely. More research with early involvement of research end users should lead to more translation into changed policies and practices that will improve health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. David P Thomas Associate Director Research and Innovation