Arguably, we conduct research to make the world a better place. Yet, we can do this only if (a) our work addresses problems that matter to people in the field (ecological relevance), (b) our studies replicate the idiosyncrasies of our target context (ecological validity), and (c) our findings make their way into a sustainable practice (knowledge translation). Of course, this is a huge challenge. Yet instead of listing the numerous and real barriers that exist, I will focus this talk on solutions. As such, I will discuss (a) participatory (action) research, (b) embedded researchers, and (c) integrated knowledge translation. Throughout this, I will synthesize the current state of research, share resources, identify success factors, discuss my own attempts and failures, and collect your expertise and experiences. With this, my aim is to enable each of us to take one incremental step forward towards more research-practice integration. After all, we can only accomplish this collectively and just because "[o]ur execution will likely be imperfect, […] that doesn’t excuse us from trying." (Elizabeth Rush, The Quickening, 2023).