Intro music
Slide 1
In 2019, the Centre for Community Child Health in Melbourne Australia won Emerald’s Real Impact Award for their project aimed at improving child health and wellbeing.
Slide 2
The project delivered an ongoing programme of organisational change to improve research impact.
Slide 3
We spoke to Ken Knight, Program Lead for Knowledge Translations & Impact at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute about the importance of inclusivity and equity in their research.
Interview
How important is it to consider inclusivity in your work?
>> KEN: Inclusivity was extremely important in our thinking. We knew that there were multiple different groups on campus, with different impact needs, and we wanted to be sure that we reach them and understood them. 
Within academia and research these are quite hierarchical systems, and there are power imbalances built into these systems, some voices are louder than others and some perspectives are given more attention. 
So we were aware of this and we wanted to make sure that we were capturing people who were less likely to be heard. 
We also know that within academic contexts, that often work around engagement; work around impact planning goes unseen and unrecognized; there aren’t systems and processes to capture that work. 
And so we really wanted to shine a spotlight on that. 
These were things which really powerfully informed our vision for inclusivity.
How can inclusivity benefit research?
>> KEN: Inclusivity in the sense of involving a whole range of different relevant stakeholders and ensuring that the voices are all the different voices that need to be brought to bear within research to have an impact is fundamental. 
Collaboration, co-design, co-production are things which we are deeply committed to as core enablers for impact and without inclusivity, without bringing people who may not ordinarily be involved in research or be seen in research institutions, or voices that might not ordinarily have a role in traditional research is fundamental to that.
What’s the importance of considering equity when thinking about inclusivity?
>> KEN: Within the Centre for Community Child Health where the project is based at Melbourne Children’s, we bring an equity lens to our work. 
And equity rather than equality acknowledges that a ‘one size fits all’ approach often fits nobody well, and that there are some groups that require more of a leg up than others to ensure that people have the same opportunities or have tailored opportunities to participate equally. 
And so that's something that's definitely been a lens that we've tried to adopt in our approach to the work.
End of video