Can I have some (more) please? Tips on writing qualitative research grant applications for quantitative researchers in population health

I was based in the ANU Research School of Population health for four yers, and I really enjoyed the research environment with its range from super-quantitative brain image scan models to super-qualitative studies of the lived experience of mental health care consumers. Professor Cathy Banwell sits on the quantitative end of this exciting specturm, and this seminar on Thursday 10 September represents the culmination of a number of months of conversations around how good it would be to expose quantitative researchers to qualitative ways of thinking, and vice versa.

Cathy was joined by Dr Christine LaBond, a qualitative research erin the School, to share her experiences and ideas as well.

Unfortunately I had to leave this talk early (for a second talk!). This happened just as Cathy was getting into the variety of frameworks within which qualitative research can sit, and the rich variety of qualitative data sources. Anything for photographs and videos to drawings and interviews can yield up valuable data to answer the relevant research questions.

The take-home message for me will have to be one of the points Cathy made right near the beginnng, that you can’t just say you’re going to record a few interviews and call it qualitative research, because there’s a whole framework supporting these techniques which grant writers ignore at their peril. True for qualitative research, and true for quantitative research too.