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Table 4 Research model characteristics

From: Capacity building of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researcher workforce: a narrative review

Organisational features

 • Privilege Indigenous worldviews, identities, experiences, knowledges, research, and pedagogical philosophies and methods, including inter-cultural workings [37, 41].

 • Recognise, value, and invest in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researchers as Indigenous [37, 41].

 • Deliver excellence-based research training strategies that are responsive to the strong desire of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research trainees for high quality, ethical, actionable and impactful health research [37, 39, 40].

 • Sole or co-lead and manage by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander academics of research programme development, and implementation [37, 54].

 • Prioritise programme-level research (not investigator- or single study-driven), wedded to a long-term vision (including critical mass and outcomes-based research) [46].

 • Build (inter-generational) cohorts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researchers [37, 54].

 • Orientate the programme to close partnerships with Indigenous communities, Elder shaping of research directions and Indigenous expertise [37, 40, 54].

• Secure and sustain funding of the RCB model [36, 37, 39, 54].

• Gain and retain support at the executive level of the institution [39].

 • Commit to organisational policy for research and training that factors in necessary time and flexibility for fortifying relationships [37, 40, 42].

 • Provide clear and viable post-completion pathways into health research careers and leadership positions [35, 49].

 • Network strategically as an organisation [39, 40]. For instance, install mechanisms to optimise trainee network spread and outreach: within-cohort, cross-institution, cross-country and international.

 • Be open to, and commit to navigating complex discipline inter-cultural values and priorities. Be cognizant of shared values (respect, integrity, responsibility, reciprocity) [37, 41].

 • To monitor and review RCB approaches, deploy mechanisms to attain data on outcomes and progress (e.g. feedback on training, post-completion employment, publications) [37, 39].

Research training

 • Support trainees through structures and mechanisms responsive to needs (social, cultural, emotional, financial) [37, 41, 54].

 • Deliver support infrastructure that is attuned to the diversity of expertise, entry pathways, lived experiences, community/familial commitments, aspirations and mobilities of trainees [37, 40].

 • Secure trainee access to experienced supervisors and mentors (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) [37].

 • Support supervisors and mentors, including training of non-Indigenous supervisors in cultural competence and cultural safety [9].

 • Establish a diverse composition of research programme members, such as by discipline, level of research experience and specialist expertise (e.g. on social determinants of health, knowledge translation, services planning and evaluation) [36, 37].

 • Ensure a sustained set of relationship-building-focused and learning-focused meeting structures (courses, seminar series, workshops, retreats, lectures, reading groups) [37, 39, 54].

 • Deliver research training across the spectrum of research skill sets (e.g. writing, research plans, conference presentations, grant applications, project management) [37].

 • Provide spaces for welcoming and collaborative in-person engagement on a regular basis, including meetings exclusively between Indigenous peoples [37, 54].

 • Provision for ample opportunities for early and later career researchers to inter-mingle and join new research projects [37].