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With apologies for cross posting.

We are a group of scholar-practitioners and would like to invite you to participate in a PDW focused on continuing the conversation on bridging the research-practice gap and to inspire extensions of current efforts to increase the relevance of academic work with a specific focus on this coming year's program theme, "At the Interface."  We will be building upon the work of this year's PDW Workshop, entitled Translating scholarship into practice: Which comes first: theory or practice?

This PDW would be offered at the Academy of Management Conference in Atlanta, GA, in August 2017.

We are approaching the research-practice gap from several angles, including the researcher, practitioner, and consultant perspectives.  Therefore, we are recruiting a panel of scholar-practitioners to share with us their experiences and perspectives. 

The workshop is envisioned as an interactive discussion between scholars and practitioners to identify gaps between research and practice and brainstorm strategies for working together to close the gap.   As you are well aware, translating scholarship into practice is a concept focusing on the fundamental approaches to solving practical concerns by using the science of interpretation to translate theoretical orientations and research findings into useable information in the everyday world.   The idea of translation is more dynamic than simply applying our research to problems.  Through translation, we are able to preserve the integrity of the research and theory because it bridges the gap between knowledge creation and knowledge utilization and then perhaps most importantly interpret that knowledge for everyday use for business practitioners. 

We would like to hear your ideas for questions, below are the questions we are thinking about right now:  

·         How do we know that we are researching problems that are of interest to practitioners?

·         How do we build a community of management researchers, educators, and practitioners that can co-create and disseminate knowledge?

·         How should we define "impact" and how should scholars and their academic institutions aspire to achieve impact?

·         What are the significant inhibitors to the generation of scholarship that is both rigorous and relevant? What are some strategies for overcoming or reducing the negative impact of these inhibitors?

We seek to interactively explore with participants how each role contributes to the creation, translation, and dissemination of research that achieves relevance to practice.  

If you are interested in joining us, we simply need a short paragraph from you describing your organization, your role, and a summary of the approach your organization uses to integrate research into practice or practice into research.  Please submit your information to me by November 30^th.  

We hope you will consider joining us!     

Regards,

Melanie

Dr. Melanie P. Cohen

IT Strategic Planning and Communications

Office of the Chief Information Officer

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

451 7th Street, SW, Suite 4278

Washington, DC  20410

202.402.8341

melanie.p.cohen@hud.gov