The Prevention Research Support Program: supporting innovation in research, translation and capability building.

Objectives: The Prevention Research Support Program (PRSP) is a New South Wales (NSW) Ministry of Health funding scheme. The scheme aims to build capability, and strengthen prevention and early intervention research that is important to the NSW public health system (NSW Health) and that leads to improved health and reduced health inequities for the people of NSW. This paper describes how PRSP funding has supported recipients to produce high-quality, policy-relevant research, and increase the impact of research on policy and practice.

Building research and evaluation capacity in population health: the NSW Health approach.

Issue addressed An organisational culture that values and uses research and evaluation (R&E) evidence to inform policy and practice is fundamental to improving health outcomes. The 2016 NSW Government Program Evaluation Guidelines recommend investment in training and development to improve evaluation capacity. The purpose of this paper is to outline the approaches taken by the NSW Ministry of Health to develop R&E capacity and assess these against existing models of practice.

Developing a strategy to promote the generation and effective use of population health research for NSW Health: 2011-2015.

The Population Health Division of the NSW Department of Health has developed a 5-year strategy to improve the effectiveness of its resource investment in population health research. This paper describes the development of the strategy, Promoting the generation and effective use of population health research in NSW: a Strategy for NSW Health 2011-2015. A review of Australian and international strategic research documents and stakeholder interviews was conducted to support the development of the strategy.

Engaging older people with English as a second language and frail older people in physical activity.

Issue Addressed: Despite growing awareness of the benefits of physical activity for older people, some population subgroups remain particularly hard to engage, especially those with English as a second language (ESL) and frail older people.

Methods: A qualitative investigation of an existing community-based physical activity provider - Active Involved Mature (AIM)--was undertaken, including in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 12 key partners and nine class instructors, and focus groups with 58 class participants.

Results: Health benefits and social factors were strong incentives for participation among both ESL and frail groups.