Balancing Power and Co-production Comment on "Research Co-production: An Underused Pathway to Impact"

The editorial by Rycroft-Malone and colleagues highlights the fact that despite considerable efforts, knowledge translation and implementation sciences fail to have the desired impact on practice, policy and service delivery. As integrated knowledge translation and co-production/co-design academics, we resonated with several themes relevant to our own work. First, that co-production amplified opportunity for evidence to be translated into practice. Second, while not a new concept, the notion of partnership approaches needs to pay greater attention to sharing power in a way that ensures decolonsing approaches are embedded with humility and trust. Third, the micro, meso, and macro levels are contributing to the knowledge translation landscape. Our commentary enhances the discussion of decolonising research, of thinking about the impacts of research and indeed, "reimagining" what future impacts may look like. Further, we suggest the neo-liberally positioned academia needs to include other knowledge/lived-experience service users and recognise true, equitable and nurtured collaboration.