Exploring evidence-based practice with external partners: Research development and the ADMHEA northwest network

This article reflects upon the development of partnerships, initiated in 2005 by one of the authors, through existing links with the then Subject Centre for Art Design and Media of the Higher Education Academy (ADM-HEA). Essentially descriptive and reflective, it looks at the factors contributing to the evolution of collaborative activity over a number of evidence-based projects between 2005 and 2011 and aims to suggest a staged generic model for cross-institutional collaborative working that can be used by first-time researchers new to working in this way. A special feature of the partnerships reflected upon is the non-hierarchical dimension, collaborative working between staff operating at a range of levels in a variety of contexts in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including Higher Education in Further Education (HE in FE). The varied constituency of the network could be described as innovative in that it facilitates a range of formal and informal exchanges, cuts across institutional hierarchies and disciplines within Art, Design and Media subjects, and allows for both the interests of individuals and institutional agendas. Here, the means by which this diversity and collaboration has been achieved is described and explored, as is the role of the network’s HEA-inspired focus on evidence-based practice in the process by which projects for this type of research activity have been conceived, bids written, funding sought and dissemination of the findings accomplished, providing a potential model for colleagues wishing to undertake similar cross-institutional, evidencebased, collaborative activity.