The Most Influential Knowledge Broker in Canada

The following blog story was first published on the United Way York Region blog on November 22, 2011. It is reposted here with permission.

In a recent bulletin from York University, David Phipps, who is the director of York University’s Research Services and Knowledge Exchange, was named the most influential knowledge broker in Canada. We’re lucky enough to be able to work with David as part of our partnership with York University.

David received his Ph.D. in Immunology from Queen’s University and has built a career managing academic research at the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation, Canadian Arthritis Network and Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In 2001, he completed his MBA from the Rotman School of Management at U of T. In his current role at York, David manages all research grants and contracts, including knowledge and technology transfer.

David is also leading York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit that provides services to researchers, community organizations and government agencies who want to use policy and practice related research to inform public policy.

Working in partnership with United Way of York Region provides community credibility to the brokering efforts of York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit.

Both partners act as mutual knowledge brokers to bridge the academic and community sectors to support knowledge translation (KT) activities so that university research and expertise can inform community level health related policies and practices. Through this collaboration, York Region residents and vulnerable populations can receive health and human services that are informed by academic research.

The partnership also includes the hiring of a Knowledge Mobilization Officer, who was recently employed to work on site at United Way to develop research initiatives that will examine how living conditions (the social determinants of health) affect health. Jane Wedlock is currently working in this role, which will certainly enhance the partnership’s overall goal to inform and support the public across the region.

Of the partnership, David notes that UWYR provides a valuable community perspective to the research and knowledge mobilization activities of York University. “In order to be relevant to York Region we need to ground our work in the experience of York Region. UWYR is the principle community convener in York Region. Our partnership with UWYR is invaluable in our efforts to be York Region’s research university.”

Doing something that matters is what David says brings him the greatest satisfaction from his involvement with United Way. “Research is important but isn’t valuable unless it’s engaged with people and organizations who can take that research and apply it to more effective social programs and more responsive public and community policies,” he adds. “Our partnership with UWYR helps make York University’s research matter.”

Merry Mobilizing! from the KMb Unit at York

Merry Mobilizing from the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University!

Michael Johnny, Manager, Knowledge Mobilization

Paula Elias, Research Translation Assistant

Gary Myers, KMbeing.com

Jane Katz, Data and Communications Assistant

Krista Jensen, Knowledge Mobilization Officer

David Phipps, Director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange

Recapping the 2011 Most Viewed Blog- Knowledge Dissemination: Blogging vs Peer Review

With a total of 880 views and 17 comments, this blog story first posted on January 12, 2011 was the most read article on Mobilize This! in 2011.  

In an age of self publishing – including blogs, videos, and other Web-based media – why do we still seek to publish in traditional academic peer-reviewed journals?  Vanity.

ResearchImpact-York published two academic papers in 2009.  In 2010 we had one in press, two submitted, and one just rejected for a second time, from the same journal.  Since our first post on May 30, 2008, ResearchImpact has published 206 blogs on Mobilize This!, an average of 6 or 7 each month.

Here’s a comparison of blogging and peer-reviewed publishing:

TIME: I started drafting our paper on ResearchSnapshot clear language summaries in July 2009.  I submitted with revisions in September.  It just got rejected.  I can write a blog in about one hour and get it posted in 20 minutes.

ACCESS: We published our first paper on York’s KMb Unit in Evidence & Policy [Phipps, D.J. and Shapson, S. 2009. Knowledge mobilisation builds local research collaboration for social innovation. Evidence & Policy. 5(3): 211-227].  I have no idea who, apart from my mother, has read this paper.  Mobilize This! has received 55,171 page views as of December 28, 2010 and has a subscriber list of over 1200.  Blogs are accessible to anyone with an internet connection.  Except for Open Access journals, most journals limit access to those who can afford a subscription.

RESPONSIVENESS: Blogging also has the added feature of allowing readers to respond by leaving comments. Try the comment feature below to leave your thoughts and let everyone know what you’re thinking.  Now, try to do the same with a peer-reviewed paper you’ve printed out.

PAYBACK:  I am not an academic.  Unlike scholars seeing tenure and promotion based on their publications, my publications do not have an impact on how my performance is measured.

If it takes less time to reach more people in a two-way fashion, why do I take the trouble to publish in peer-reviewed journals if it doesn’t benefit me in any way?

Peer review provides a level of quality control; however, so does blogging.  If you don’t find our writing valuable you won’t return to this blog or you’ll tell us so.  And even though I believe peer-reviewed publishing and blogging are complementary, both take time.  So why do we continue to take the time to pursue both forms of dissemination when blogging seems to meet our needs?

In practical terms, publishing in peer-reviewed journals gives us credibility in the eyes of one of our key constituents: faculty.  Faculty’s currency is peer review.  We gain credibility when faculty peers approve our work and find it worthy of publication.  But the real truth is, publishing in peer-reviewed journals provides a sense of personal satisfaction that boarders on vanity.  I enjoy the sense of satisfaction when faculty peers (finally) approve our publications.  At the end of the day my ego is stroked when our work is accepted for peer-reviewed publication as well as when I receive comments on Mobilize This!  Together, these two forms allow you, the KMb stakeholder, to know that our work is not only immediate, accessible and engaging (thank you, blogging!) but it also has the peer reviewed seal of approval (even if the seal is delayed by 12-18 months).

As Web 2.0 and open access move into the academy I predict we will increasingly see a blend of peer-reviewed and online media.  To get to there from here all we need to do is change tenure and promotion, peer review, and the academic publishing industry.  I’ll get right on that….after my next blog…

New Knowledge Mobilization Award at UVic / Nouveau prix afin de reconnaître l’excellence en matière de mobilisation des connaissances

Dale Anderson, RIR-UVic

The University of Victoria has a new award to recognize excellence in knowledge mobilization by UVic researchers. The Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization is currently accepting nominations for the 2012 award. This award replaces the former Craigdarroch Awards for Excellence in Societal Contribution, and Excellence in Communicating Research. 

L’Université de Victoria compte sur un nouveau prix afin de reconnaître l’excellence en matière de mobilisation des connaissances par les chercheurs de l’Université, le Prix Craigdarroch. Les mises en candidatures sont ouvertes pour l’édition 2012. Ce prix remplace l’ancien Prix Craigdarroch récompensant l’excellence de la contribution à la société, et l’excellence en communication de la recherche.

The University of Victoria has a new award to recognize excellence in knowledge mobilization by UVic researchers.

The Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization is currently accepting nominations for the 2012 award. This award replaces the former Craigdarroch Awards for Excellence in Societal Contribution, and Excellence in Communicating Research.

The new award will recognize a significant project or body of work that demonstrates excellence in Knowledge Mobilization (KM). At the University of Victoria, KM is defined as “the purposeful exchange and application of knowledge developed through an ongoing process of research and/or creative and artistic endeavor for the benefit of society.” KM applies across the academy and includes the dissemination of both basic and applied research as well as the full range of creative and artistic activities undertaken by faculty members. The concept of societal benefit resulting from KM is equally comprehensive, ranging from advances within academic disciplines, to community engaged research, to advances affecting wider society through social, economic, humanistic and/or environmental improvements.

The Craigdarroch Research Awards are named for Craigdarroch Castle, which was home to Victoria College from 1921 to 1946. These annual awards are an opportunity to recognize those who have been instrumental in original, productive, entrepreneurial and ground-breaking research at the University of Victoria.

For more information and nomination forms, please see the website.

David Phipps’ Opening Address to the Community Sector in the United Kingdom / Mot d’ouverture de David Phipps à l’attention du milieu communautaire du Royaume-Uni

David Phipps, RIR- York

David Phipps (RIR-York) was in the UK recently and included an address to open the annual general meeting of 3VA. 3VA is a Council for Voluntary Service, providing support for voluntary and community organizations across Eastboume, Lewes District and Wealden.  David was introduced as “the most influential knowledge broker in Canada and a recognized world leader in the field of universities empowering local communities and the voluntary sector”.

David Phipps (RIR-York) était récemment au Royaume-Uni et prononçait le mot d’ouverture de la rencontre annuelle de 3VA. 3VA est un conseil pour le bénévolat qui fournit un appui aux organisations communautaires et bénévoles à travers Eastoubme, Lewes District et Wealden. David a été présenté comme “le courtier de connaissances le plus influent du Canada ainsi qu’un leader mondialement reconnu dans la mouvance des universités qui favorise l’habilitation des communautés locales et le secteur bénévole”.

The address started with the video of the Green Economy Centre of Nottawasaga Futures as an example of knowledge mobilization enabling a social innovation. York’s partnership with the United Way of York Region was used as another example of a community agency leading in community development. Both are important partners for York University.

“On behalf of my community partners in Canada, it is a pleasure to welcome you to your AGM.

I believe the community sector is rich in talent and expertise. Community expertise and local knowledge is critically important to effective implementation of any new policy, program or service.  Similarly tacit knowledge, traditional knowledge and other forms of knowing are found in the community.  All knowledge is important and different knowledges must collaborate to enable social innovation.

I have read that the community sector is not an innovative sector.  This is rubbish as the community sector has always made a practice of doing more with less which forces innovative and creative solutions to challenges. The limitation we all face is the issue of scale. How can a local innovation be shared with other communities and scaled for broader impact? These limited resources means we have to collaborate to do more with less and that is what I wish to talk about today. Collaboration between the community and academic sectors.

As you open your AGM – it is my pleasure to talk to you about our university and community efforts in Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) to support social innovation.  KMb is an institutional infrastructure. KMb at York, like the Community University Partnership Program at the University of Brighton is unique. Both provide services that connect community talent to university talent including researchers and students. Although we implement differently the goals are similar.

Over the last 5.5 years York’s KMb Unit has helped to forge over 225 relationships. We have helped community agencies raise over $1M for programs and services and have attracted over $1M to the university in sponsored research opportunities. Supported by York’s KMb Unit, university researchers and their community partners have received over $17M in engaged scholarship grant funding. We have placed 35 KMb graduate student interns with community and public sector partners and eight of them have been hired by their placement partners.  We also have an active social media strategy.

University researchers have always partnered with a variety of organizations, that isn’t new.  What is new is that some institutions like York and Brighton have developed an institutional capacity to support this activity for the mutual benefit of the university and the community.  It is my belief that the community sector is the heart of our communities. Community agencies are committed and innovative and agile. You have ability to respond to opportunities and collaborate with universities without a bureaucratic web of red tape or a maze of intellectual property agreements.

I am traveling in UK to speak about social innovation and knowledge mobilization visiting Edinburgh, Eastbourne, Brighton and London.

I would also like to recognize that today (December 1) is World AIDS Day, a day to remember those we have lost, their friends, families and allies and the community agencies who provide a wide range of services to people affected by HIV/AIDS. Today is also a day to renew our commitments to research and service for HIV/AIDS. Some of our work has been with HIV/AIDS community service organizations. We have placed a graduate student intern at an AIDS service organization in York Region and we have written and posted clear language summaries that summarize published HIV/AIDS research.

I invite you now to pause, just for a moment and remember those who have lived and continue to live with HIV/AIDS.

…

Let us reflect on the value that we might be able to generate for HIV/AIDS when we work together.  When academic research and community expertise collaborate to bring new ideas to fruition.

In closing, I invite you watch a video in which Daniele Zanotti, CEO of the United Way of York Region speaks about the value of knowledge mobilization to the university and the community.”

Sandra Nutley – In Her Own Words / Sandra Nutley – dans ses propres mots

David Phipps, RIR-York 

Sandra Nutley has written and will continue to write seminal works on research use. Read her articles and her books but also attend a presentation she makes because it is there that she distills her many words into just a few.  And she makes them all count.

Sandra Nutley a écrit et continue d’écrire des travaux de référence sur l’utilisation de la recherche. Ne manquez pas de lire ses articles et ses livres, mais surtout, ne perdez pas l’occasion d’assister à ses présentations. C’est à ces occasions qu’elle synthétise sa pensée complexe en quelques mots, chacun d’un vaut son pesant d’or.

I have had the pleasure of hearing Sandra Nutley speak on numerous occasions in the UK and in Canada. I have read nine of her papers, working papers and even a forthcoming book chapter.  Of course, I have read her book, Using Evidence that she wrote in 2007 with Huw Davies and Isobel Davies. In fact I have purchased over 30 copies of her book since it has been published using them in workshops and meetings.

Her writing is on the must read list for all knowledge brokers. Even though her writing is fairly accessible, Sandra writes for academics not for practitioners because Sandra is an academic. That’s where going to hear her speak is a wonderful complement to reading her scholarship. Most recently I shared the stage with Sandra at the 10^th Anniversary conference of the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University of Edinburgh. Sandra presented straight forward advice that was accessible to scholars, practitioners and partners from the policy and community sectors. She presented seven lessons for those seeking to enhance the use of academic research by decision makers. Thank you to Sandra for permission to reprint these which we reproduce with reflections on our knowledge mobilization practice at RIR-York.

Nutley’s Lesson	RIR-York Reflections
Set realistic ambitions and expectations about research use	York’s KMb Unit promises to use best efforts to connect researchers to decision maker partners. We do not promise to deliver the best evidence to inform decisions.  That is up to the collaboration.
Improve supply of relevant, accessible and credible evidence, but don’t stop there	York translates academic articles into ResearchSnapshot clear language research summaries and publishes these in an on line searchable database. These serve as a starting point for knowledge brokering, they are not an end in themselves.
Shape as well as respond to the demand for evidence in policy and practice settings (consider working with advocacy organizations)	We work closely with the United Way of York Region to build community capacity for engaging in research and create a culture of collaboration between the university and community partners.
Develop multifaceted knowledge exchange strategies, more than just packaging and knowledge translation (players and processes are more important than the products)	As above, ResearchSnapshots are only the starting point for knowledge brokering. York’s KMb Unit then uses user pull (research translation help desk, Lunch & Learn), knowledge exchange (KM in AM, Research Forums) and co-production (interns, social media) methods to support the co-production of knowledge by researchers and their decision maker partners.
Recognize the role of dedicated knowledge broker organizations and networks	Together with York, our RIR partners (Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Université du Québec à Montréal, U. Guelph, U. Saskatchewan, U. Victoria) have invested in an institutional capacity for KMb services.
Target multiple voices to increase opportunities for evidence to be part of the policy discourse	York’s KMb practice routinely engages the community sector, Regional and municipal agencies, provincial ministries and the hospital sector in conversations with university researchers and students. We are considering how best to include colleges and the private sector in the conversations.
Evaluate knowledge exchange strategies to improve research use and learn from this	We did a formal evaluation of the KMb Unit in 2009/2010. We posted the formal evaluation and our response on Mobilize This! and we published a peer reviewed journal article. Our KMb practice is participatory and self reflective, embedding learning as we go.

Sandra summarized her research knowledge in straight forward practice relevant advice presented in clear, concise language (well, “policy discourse” might not be clear language). Thank you Sandra for practicing what you preach and for helping us reflect on our own knowledge brokering practice.

Reflections on Going Green / Réflexion sur le virage vert

In this blog we reflect on the lessons learned from working with Nottawasaga Futures to help develop the Green Economy Centre in South Simcoe.

Dans ce billet, nous revenons sur les leçons apprises du travail accompli avec Nottawasaga Futures afin d’aider au développement du Centre d’économie verte de South Simcoe.

York’s KMb Unit was pleased to work with Valerie Ryan (Nottawasaga Futures), faculty and students of York University to imagine, develop and launch the Green Economy Centre. The Green Economy Centre provides green business services to businesses in rural South Simcoe.

You can read the full story of the Green Economy Centre from knowledge mobilization to social innovation in the KMb in Action section of the RIR website here.

Working with Val has been a pleasure. Her vision and leadership have had a material impact on rural South Simcoe communities and business. And York’s KMb Unit was pleased to be part of this effort. Our experience with Val, Nottawasaga Futures and the Green Economy Centre illustrates a number of knowledge mobilization “lessons learned”.

1. Knowledge mobilization (the process) enables social innovations (the outcome): Knowledge mobilization connected Nottawasaga Futures to faculty and graduate students. The work that they undertook together resulted in a vision for a green economy in South Simcoe. The Green Economy Centre was the result. The Green Economy Centre is a social innovation. It found a new way to address a pressing and persistent need.
2. Impact is measured at the level of the user. When measuring the impact of knowledge mobilization or of research, don’t ask a faculty member to tell you how many papers were published, which is important, but important to them. Instead ask the research user what changed as a result of the relationship formed with the researchers and/or students. In this case a new program was developed and jobs were created. In other instances a policy might have been influenced or a social service might be delivered more effectively.
3. Impact takes time. The knowledge mobilization process happened fairly quickly, over the summer of 2009. Then the research and planning occurred and the Green Economy Centre launched March 26, 2010. Eighteen months later the Green Economy Centre is producing results. Funders and stakeholders need to give projects enough time to demonstrate results. (In fact, showing results in 18 months is remarkable. Many social innovations measure their impact over years.)
4. Students are as valuable to knowledge mobilization as faculty. Michael and Susan were the key researchers for Nottawasaga Futures. They had the support of their supervisors Mark and Gerda but it was their research skills and their talent that helped Nottawasaga launch the Green Economy Centre. Knowledge mobilization can also be a way for students to meet potential employers. Eight of York’s Knowledge Mobilization interns, including Susan, have been hired by their placement partners. This is an immediate impact for the student and for the placement partner that has built capacity to engage with university research to inform decision making.

Don’t forget to watch the Green Economy Centre video that is posted in the KMb in Action story to hear Val and Susan Swail, a York KMb graduate student intern now working at the Green Economy Centre, talk about the Green Economy Centre in the own words.