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How are third sector organisations involved in collaborative research? A scoping review of the literature

Nedra Peter,I. Graham,J. Cameron,Anita Kothari

Published 2026 in Voluntary Sector Review

ABSTRACT

Third sector organisations (TSOs) are an important component of health and social care provision in high-income countries. However, TSOs’ involvement in and use of collaborative research is limited. We conducted a scoping literature review to identify examples of TSOs’ involvement in collaborative research, and facilitators and challenges to this involvement. Twenty-three of 9,119 studies were included in the analysis. Facilitators to collaboration included: relevance of research, pre-established relationships, positive outlook on research and social change, collaborative knowledge production, prioritising relationship building, ensuring mutually beneficial outcomes and building organisational capacity. Challenges to researcher collaboration included: differences in expectations and priorities, differences in values and perceptions, issues of power imbalances, limited research knowledge and skills in TSOs, and limited resources. To address these challenges, we suggest looking to the model of Integrated Knowledge Translation, reflecting a set of practices that promote knowledge co-production by researchers and knowledge users throughout the research process

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