Perceptions of barriers and facilitators to engaging in implementation science: a qualitative study

Objective: Understanding barriers and facilitators to engaging with implementation science (IS) research can provide insight into how to improve efforts to encourage more researchers to participate in IS research. Study design: The study design used is a grounded theory qualitative study. Methods: We conducted semistructured telephone interviews with 20 health researchers familiar with IS that both report engaging in IS research and those that do not. We explored perceptions of barriers and facilitators to engaging in IS research. Themes surrounding difficulties defining IS, lack of training availability, and obstacles to forming research partnerships were discussed as barriers to engaging IS research. Interview topics were informed by the result of an online survey of health researchers in the US. Results: Themes surrounding difficulties defining IS, lack of training availability, and obstacles to forming research partnerships were discussed as barriers to engaging IS research. While accessible mentorship, exposure to formative experiences that develop interest in IS research and an increasing IS visibility were described as motivators for engaging in IS research. Conclusions: These results highlight the importance of mentorship and exposure to IS ideas in motivating engagement in IS research and the presence of training and methodological barriers to engagement. Future research should expand this line of inquiry to include the perspectives of more junior researchers and students to better reflect the current IS environment.