Academic-practitioner collaboration for food relief sector improvement

Description

Efforts to address chronic food insecurity in Australia are dominated by food relief, and while a valuable service, it has yet to reduce chronic food insecurity. New knowledge can be used to improve services and policy, however, translation of research into practice is challenging. Conducting research in partnership with stakeholders is a promising way to increase evidence-informed practice.
Building on previous collaborations in South Australia, researchers have sustained stakeholder relationships with government and community sector food relief organisations, enabled by partnership research, commissioned projects, and knowledge brokering. Over eight years, researchers proactively collaborated and used knowledge translation approaches, responding to emergent sector needs, complementing research objectives. Research activities remained flexible to fit within stakeholders’ contexts and constraints. Researchers performed a unique network-linking role during times of government change and staff turnover.
Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to evaluate collaborations, including a stakeholder database, partner interviews, and tracing of policy and practice influence and impact.
This paper describes processes, outputs and outcomes co-produced through these collaborations, intended to improve service design and delivery and policy action in food security. More in-depth, prospective evaluation is needed to understand the value of research-sector partnerships and their benefit upon food and social systems.

Period	3 Dec 2024
Event title	Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference 2024 (ANZMAC): AI for Sustainable Marketing: Bridging Innovation and Responsibility
Event type	Conference
Location	Hobart, Australia, TasmaniaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International