Getting involved in research can be enormously beneficial for your service and practitioners and the children and families you support. It will commonly involve working in collaboration with a range of different organisations (such as a university or the NHS) to ensure a successful research study / project.

Becoming research active requires many different considerations, and more commonly involves working with a range of different organisations (such as a university) to produce a successful research study / project. Every service will be in a different capacity and place in terms of their research readiness. It is likely that your service:

• may already be doing research without knowing e.g. audits of services
• might already be doing research and want to go a step further
• might want turn research into day-to-day practice
• might be aware of the gaps in the research base, but are unsure on how to deal with them.

To help you evaluate what stage your service is at, we have produced brief introductions to the current evidence-base within 0-5 practices, the barriers to using evidence-based research in practice, and the benefits of research.

When you are ready to take the next step, head over to our handy guides on: becoming research ready, getting involved in research, or co-developing a research application.