title: Building policy capacities: an interactive approach for linking knowledge to action in health promotion.
abstract: This article outlines a theoretical framework for an interactive, research-driven approach to building policy capacities in health promotion. First, it illustrates how two important issues in the recent public health debate, capacity building and linking scientific knowledge to policy action, are connected to each other theoretically. It then introduces an international study on an interactive approach to capacity building in health promotion policy. The approach combines the ADEPT model of policy capacities with a co-operative planning process to foster the exchange of knowledge between policy-makers and researchers, thus improving intra- and inter-organizational capacities. A regional-level physical activity promotion project involving governmental and public-law institutions, NGOs and university researchers serves as a case study to illustrate the potential of the approach for capacity building. Analysis and comparison with a similar local-level project indicate that the approach provides an effective means of linking scientific knowledge to policy action and to planning concrete measures for capacity building in health promotion, but that it requires sufficiently long timelines and adequate resources to achieve adequate implementation and sustainability.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport Science and Sport, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Gebbertstraβe 123b, 91058 Erlangen, Germany alfred.ruetten@sport.uni-erlangen.de.
authors.forename: Alfred
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rütten
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport Science and Sport, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Gebbertstraβe 123b, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gelius
mesh_terms: D057191:Capacity Building; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D011050:Policy Making
keywords: capacity building; knowledge translation; physical activity; policy development