SIRA Research Strategy 2022-2025

Our research strategic framework

1. Our vision

To use high quality research to ensure NSW’s home building, CTP and workers compensation schemes are fair, affordable and effective.

2. Our objectives

1. Involve more people with lived experience in all facets of our research program
2. Communicate our research more effectively
3. Help organisations partner with us through agile funding pathways
4. Maximise the impact of our research to help injured people.

3. Our values

• Focus on injured people. We will continue investing and innovating to support injured people in our schemes
• Honesty and respect. We will create a program that honours and respects each stakeholder’s needs
• Accessibility. We will make information available and accessible
• Agility and adaptability. We value agility in our research processes to meet the changing needs of injured people in our schemes.

4. Our action areas

• Collaborating and co-designing
• Designing a transparent and inclusive program
• Communicating research inclusively
• Investing to make a difference.

5. Our priorities

• Policy, regulation and scheme design
• Access and health literacy
• Value-based healthcare
• Prevention and health-related quality of life
• Service delivery models
• Clinical designs and pathways.

Our impact

• An inclusive research program designed with injured people and key stakeholders
• Diverse research partnerships
• A shared focus on delivering impact for injured people
• Transparent investment and communication.

Why we conduct research

As the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA), research is at the core of our strategic framework. It underpins our key functions to ensure workers compensation insurance, CTP green slip insurance, home building compensation insurance schemes are fair, affordable and effective for policy holders, and for people who make a claim for compensation today or in the future.

Both the workers compensation and motor accidents legislation contain provisions with respect to SIRA’s research functions.

• Division 10.1 of the Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 outlines SIRA’s functions and includes the requirement “to provide support and funding for research and education in connection with those services that will assist effective injury management.”
• Section 23(1)(a) of the Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Act 1998 provides that SIRA is “to initiate and encourage research to identify efficient and effective strategies for the prevention and management of work injury and for the rehabilitation of injured workers.”
• SIRA’s investment in research and education is funded from levies collected from workers compensation policies and compulsory third party polices.
• SIRA invests in a range of research activities, educational campaigns and programs directly aligned to current and emerging scheme needs.

What’s behind this strategy?

In line with our obligations, we recently carried out a three-part examination of our research program.

1. An independent review

We engaged Professor Niki Ellis to carry out a comprehensive independent review of our research program. This confirmed we were funding research relevant to the sector’s challenges and that the impact of our research was being felt. However, the review identified four ways we could enhance what we were doing:

• Take a more strategic approach to setting and identifying our research priorities.
• Increase our focus on communicating findings to key stakeholders, including translating them into other languages.
• Plan for and effectively evaluate the impact of our research.
• Facilitate opportunities for research collaboration and co-design across the sector.

2. Public consultation and stakeholder engagement

In May 2021, we undertook a six-week consultation with stakeholders to improve collaboration and co-design across the sector. We received 90 responses, which identified seven key themes and opportunities.

• Look for new ways to diversify the program, especially by involving people with lived experience
• Create opportunities for more organisations and individuals to be involved in key research phases
• Make current and future research partnerships more transparent
• Include more people in the program, especially those with lived experience, and from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• Communicate research outcomes and next steps in a targeted way
• Simplify our communications based on stakeholder preferences
• Provide clear measures of success and more inclusive impact planning.

3. Personal injury evidence gap map

In 2020, we engaged The George Institute for Global Health to produce a personal injury centric evidence gap map. Its purpose was to reveal where significant evidence already existed and where there were gaps with little or no evidence. This confirmed several things:

• There was limited evidence on many of our priority research areas
• There was significant evidence in traditional research areas, including mental health and return to work
• There was limited evidence on health literacy, quality of life, sense of agency and perceived injustice
• The sector could be investing more in developing and implementing intervention programs
• Many vulnerable communities were underrepresented in personal injury research, including CALD communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and women.

Implementing and reviewing our research strategy

We will implement and review our research strategy based on our four action areas.

• Action area 1: Collaborating and co-designing
• Action area 2: Designing an inclusive and transparent program
• Action area 3: Communicating research inclusively
• Action area 4: Research activities that make a difference.

Action Area 1

Collaborating and co-designing

What we will do

Encourage diversity through new and varied opportunities to collaborate and co-design.

What this looks like in action

• Prioritising new research opportunities - We will take a collaborative approach to prioritising new research opportunities. This means working with stakeholders to prioritise research based on the likely level of impact any research will have on injured people, the NSW community, service providers and the NSW government sector.
• End-to-end research built on co-design methodology - We will ask stakeholders to help design and develop knowledge that is better aligned with scheme outcomes and the needs of injured people. This includes inviting people with lived experience and service providers to guide our research agenda and share their insights into how services can best help.
• Bi-annual research forums- We will facilitate bi-annual research forums with stakeholders. These will focus on strengthening the connections between our research program and people with lived experience, as well as service providers, academics, and insurers.
• Recruiting and engaging vulnerable communities - We will aim to recruit and engage people from CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, older people and people with a disability by targeting community leaders and organisations to make them aware of our research priorities and projects.

Success criteria

We will have:

1. Created designated opportunities for people with lived experience, service providers and small to medium businesses to engage with the program and actively participate in it from 2022.
2. Delivered an ongoing forum series from 2022 in which at least 50% of participants will be service providers or people with lived experience.
3. Delivered a 20% increase in CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in research studies by 2025.
4. Built rapport with CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with a disability, and older people including establishing a list of trusted community organisations by end of 2022
5. Seen year-on-year increases in diverse participation in our research including from small-medium business, CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with a disability and older people between 2022 and 2025.
6. Generated knowledge about our research program within CALD communities.
7. Conducted an annual survey of CALD communities to track, measure and improve how we are interpreting and translating knowledge from 2022.

Action Area 2

Designing an inclusive and transparent program

What we will do

Implement a new transparent program design and facilitate broader participation.

What this looks like in action

• Awarding priority research grants - We will work with research agencies and partners to deliver research that targets our priority-based agenda.
• Using Implementation and evaluation grants - We will work with researchers at all stages of the research cycle to maximise the impact of our research.
• Opening novel and emerging grants - We will open new grants and pathways for researchers to apply for funding towards novel and emerging treatments and new technologies.
• Awarding knowledge translation grants - We will work with a range of partners, including community-based organisations, to communicate our research findings and outcomes to key audiences.
• Directly commissioning research - We will commission specialised research requiring the knowledge and skills of subject matter experts. We will determine both the theme of the research and which agency is best placed to provide it.
• Developing a community of practice - We will explore opportunities to develop a community of practice.
• Closing the industry gap - We will engage directly with universities and organisations to exchange knowledge and ideas that could enhance our capabilities and technologies.

Success criteria

We will have:

1. Seen a year-on-year increase in awareness of our research and funding pathways among government agencies, academics, community organisations and people with lived experience from 2023.
2. Allocated 20% of annual research investment to designing, implementing, and evaluating intervention processes from 2023.
3. Spent a minimum 10% of research funding with CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-run organisations from financial year 2022/2023.
4. Developed multiple collaboration opportunities targeting small to medium organisations from 2022.
5. Launched our knowledge translation grants program in 2022.
6. Launched our implementation and evaluation grants program in 2023.
7. Launched our novel and emerging grants program in 2023.
8. Considered the development of a community of practice with our stakeholders via our bi-annual research forums in 2022.
9. Created a forum to exchange knowledge with universities and other organisations from 2022.

Action Area 3

Communicating research inclusively

What we will do

Develop inclusive approaches to communicating research insights and outcomes.

What this looks like in action

• Creating specific communication partnerships - We will formalise our relationship with key organisations so we can better communicate and collaborate with vulnerable audiences, such as CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, older people and people with a disability.
• Translating and interpreting - We will minimise barriers to communication by providing interpreting and translation services. This includes translating material into at least the five most common non-English languages spoken in NSW and releasing it when we release information in English.
• Integrating our translation strategy into milestones - We will incorporate communication and engagement with CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with a disability and older people into research project milestones.
• Improving how we use communication channels - We will use a variety of channels to communicate regularly with stakeholders about our research program.
• Starting a repository - We will establish an open access data repository to share and disseminate research.
• Building internal capacity - We will continue building our internal knowledge translation capability to promote broader stakeholder participation.

Success criteria

We will have:

1. Established new partnerships, including with CALD and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, to help us develop and implement engagement strategies with our key audiences from 2022.
2. Involved service providers and people with lived experience in our research program development activities from 2022. We will have done this in a structured way, including in setting and evaluating our annual priorities.
3. Enabled more inclusive research through dedicated funding for translating and interpreting services from financial year 2022/2023.
4. Increased delivery of in-language resources, such as posters and pamphlets. These will have been distributed to CALD community leaders, organisations, and media outlets from 2022.
5. Provided access to research repository to share our knowledge with the NSW community from 2022.

Action Area 4

Research activities that make a difference

What we will do

Facilitate research activities that positively impact people injured in NSW workplaces and on NSW roads.

What this looks like in action

• Investing where it’s needed - We will use our personal injury gap map to inform investment decisions that deliver impact and cut down on the sector duplicating research investment and effort.
• Communicating research outcomes and insights - We will connect injured people and other stakeholders in our schemes to the information they need to make informed healthcare decisions.
• Building capability to make an impact - We will connect small and medium businesses with the training and education they need to play an active role in our research program.
• Reporting transparently - We will make regular public reports on our research program, including priority areas, current projects, partnerships, and investment.

Success criteria

We will have:

1. Seen a year-on-year increase in the number of research partnerships targeting the evidence gaps outlined in the personal injury evidence gap map from 2023.
2. Provided multiple ways for people to engage with research including via our website, social media, community centric channels and our dedicated forums from 2022.
3. Increased capability in impact by facilitating up to three research impact workshops each year for small and medium businesses from 2022.
4. Measured and tracked the quality of funded research utilising the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) principles, and incorporate those into a published quarterly research impact report from 2022.

Towards the future

This is our roadmap to 2025 and we need to be agile to achieve our goals. As a multiyear strategy, we intend to regularly review and adapt it based on analysis and feedback.

Over the duration of the strategy, we will:

• Be open and transparent about how the strategy is progressing
• Measure and report on key milestones
• Be in regular contact with our stakeholders
• Continue to review and adapt to best meet the needs of injured people in our schemes.

We welcome your feedback to [email protected]