CLAHRCs in practice: combined knowledge transfer and exchange strategies, cultural change, and experimentation.

Objectives: The nine NIHR CLAHRCs are collaborations between universities and local NHS organizations that seek to improve patient outcomes through the conduct and application of applied health research. The theoretical and practical context within which the CLAHRCs were set up was characterized by a considerable degree of uncertainty, and the CLAHRCs were established as a natural experiment.

Methods: We adopted a formative and emergent evaluation approach.