The work of EQUIPS is divided into three activity ‘strands’:
Strand 1
‘Enabling’, aims to provide resources (e.g., training, events, website) to build capability and capacity amongst the network
Strand 2
‘Understanding and Informing’, aims to identify research priorities and strategies, understand the barriers and enablers to research, and monitor and evaluate the network
Strand 3
‘Focusing’, will support research into the identified priority areas, known as ‘clusters’. Two clusters have been identified: Sociotechnical Systems Design and Implementation and Evaluation
Within the strands there are several tasks. Some tasks inform the work of others. For example, identified barriers and enablers to QPS research in Strand 2 will be used to help inform the work of the ‘capacity’ task in Strand 1. The diagram below shows the strand structure.

List of EQUIPS tasks and their objectives
High-level details of the tasks in the EQUIPS work programme are outlined below. For more details, please contact equips@tcd.ie.
Strand Tasks objectives
- Events & engagement activities Provide opportunities for networking
- Information & interactive resources Promote efficient access to information
- Knowledge translation Support integrated knowledge translation work
- Community building Build a vibrant community, not just a network
- Capacity Document and explore solutions to capacity challenges for QPS research
- Capability Identify training and development needs
- Priorities & strategies Develop a shared EQUIPS understanding of the definition and objectives of QPS research in Ireland
- Barriers and enablers Identify the barriers and facilitators to QPS research in Ireland
- Network analysis, monitoring & evaluation Define, monitor & evaluate EQUIPS against agreed quality criteria to inform network improvement
Strand 3 Research Clusters objectives
Systems & Process Design Deploy a co-design and sociotechnical systems approach to understanding and improving systems and processes
Implementation & Evaluation Identify active researchers, healthcare practitioners and PPI partners in Ireland with an interest in understanding and improving QPS implementation and evaluation
What types of evidence will EQUIPS produce?
EQUIPS will produce reports, online education and training resources and research papers (including literature reviews), whilst providing a platform to share knowledge.