Table 4.

Recommendations for establishing a collaborative network for acute kidney injury (AKI) research

	Component	Principles and approach
1.	Identify the key roles of the participating groups	a. The collaborative effort should be inclusive and open to all interested societies/organizations. b. Participation in the collaborative organization will require commitment of time, expertise, and/or resources as appropriate to the specific initiative and in accordance with the means of the organization/group. c. An organizational structure will be required to coordinate the activities. d. Work products from the collaborative effort will require a mechanism for recognizing the contributions of each group.
2.	Scope of collaborations	a. Identify topics in AKI areas of mutual interest and of wide application. b. Develop consensus statements for best practice where there is limited or no evidence and where, due to accepted practices, it will be difficult to get evidence. c. Develop tools to standardize the management of AKI. d. Develop evidence through clinical research where feasible. e. Develop practice recommendations/guidelines. f. Implement guidelines.
3.	Define infrastructure needs	a. Identify key components needed (for example, database, protocols for Web-based information transfer). b. Establish the requirements for sharing information with regulatory agencies. c. Define training needs for developing researchers and the resources that are required and define what hurdles will need to be overcome. d. International collaboration will require identification of peer-reviewed, public, and commercial sources of financial support. e. Develop an inventory of current collaborative efforts and establish relationships with these existing networks.
4.	Identify common unifying principles that would form the basis of ongoing collaboration	a. Establish protocols for consistent data entry that allows benchmarking of participating units. b. Identify questions that interest the majority of the participants. c. Initiate a short-term collaborative project to validate proposed AKI definition as an initial project.