Goal 3
Generate and support evidence for policy
and practice
Informing health and social care policy and practice through high-quality data and evidence
The HRB will fund research and conduct data analysis and evidence synthesis that generates trusted evidence to underpin health and social care policy, service planning, and frontline care. We will drive innovative approaches to co-produce, translate, and disseminate data, research and evidence empowering decision-making in policy and practice.
We will enhance our health information infrastructure to support health and social care policy, service planning and practice in mental health, disability, and drugs and alcohol by:
- Expanding the HRB’s national health information systems’ specialist areas of mental health, disability, and drugs and alcohol and associated research activity in collaboration with our key stakeholders, in order to ensure that they are used as evidence to support national strategy, policy, and service planning in these areas
- Investing in innovative statistical techniques and data visualisation, including geomapping and AI, in order to improve the usability of national health information systems to inform and support health and social care research, policy and practice
- Supporting a standards-based approach to information management and data quality so as to ensure that the HRB is a trusted voice in the provision of key health information, including its discoverability via a national health dataset catalogue
- Establishing the HRB as a trusted data holder as part of the EHDS, with the technical capability for secure processing to enable access to and linkage of data for secondary research purposes and for policy and practice
- Working with the Department of Health, the HSE and others to support the digitisation of data in community-based health and social care services and to promote their research potential in relation to Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030.
We will ensure that HRB evidence informs health and social care policy and practice within a coordinated evidence ecosystem by:
Providing a dedicated evidence centre with a knowledge brokering and research synthesis team, national drugs library, and alcohol and drugs research programme, in order to provide tailored evidence products and services to key stakeholders
Supporting, strengthening and connecting the evidence synthesis community on the island of Ireland via Evidence Synthesis Ireland and raising awareness of evidence synthesis among the public, health and social care practitioners and policy-makers
Building skills in commissioning, interpreting and applying different types of evidence and knowledge brokering
Investing in evidence synthesis methods and budgetary/economic impact analysis to inform the development of prioritised national clinical guidelines and other evidence products
Establishing an Evidence Synthesis Hub to develop and use new methods to support relevant and timely synthesised research evidence from across the evidence ecosystem for decision-makers during preparedness and response phases for emerging public health threats
Working in partnership with international funders and networks to advance the safe and responsible use of AI-enabled tools and open data systems that support evidence synthesis, including living evidence syntheses.
We will fund high-quality research that delivers robust, relevant, timely, accessible and actionable evidence in areas prioritised by policy-makers by:
Working with the Department of Health to solicit, fund and manage projects through the Evidence for Policy Research Programme or other mechanisms as required
Exploring collaboration and co-funding opportunities with the HSE and other partners, in order to support service-driven and implementation-oriented research
Prioritising and supporting research (with the associated capacity building) that can inform and guide the evaluation of the transformation goals set out in Sláintecare, such as universal healthcare; shifting care to primary and community settings; improved access and quality; reduced waiting lists; workforce reform; and accelerating digital health
Convening a national mirror group in health services, systems and policy research to input into research topics for the Transforming Health and Care Systems partnership and to support the transfer of findings into policy and practice
Promoting cross-sectoral collaboration and whole-of-government approaches to evidence-for-policy initiatives and data linkage, in order to include those that span human, animal and environmental health.
Recognising the two-way relationship between research and policy, we will promote and facilitate engagement between researchers and decision-makers to bridge the research-policy gap by:
Building awareness of the policy-making process among researchers and providing guidance on how to apply it to their research
Providing supports to policy-makers to identify and prioritise evidence gaps and to translate these into research questions
Building capacity in critical appraisal skills among decision-makers in health and social care in order to enable them to assess the trustworthiness, quality and relevance of evidence used in decision-making in particular contexts
Facilitating and supporting innovative knowledge brokerage activities between the policy-making community and evidence producers to build long-term connections and relationships and to optimise the translation and adoption of evidence
Ensuring that the voices, experiences and values of the public, patients, charities and civil society organisations are considered alongside scientific evidence.