In the current public health research environment, there is a dual emphasis, from funders and other sources, on rigorous trials that involve multiple sites, along with genuine engagement with a variety of stakeholders, including policymakers, community members and institutions, patients, and their families [38, 39]. This dual emphasis underscores the continuing, and likely growing, importance of developing effective approaches to engaging community coalitions, policymakers, and other stakeholders in both identifying key researcher questions that will inform policy and practice and carrying out rigorous studies to investigate these questions. The model presented in this paper could be incorporated into structural approaches to closing the gap between research, policy, and practice [40].
