There are lots of pan-Canadian scholarly associations at Congress. There are lots of book sellers and publishers at Congress. There are lots of individual scholars talking about their projects at Congress. And there are three pan-Canadian organizations that support them with a presence in the book fair, the agora of Congress: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) and ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche (RIR). Our good friends at the Canada Foundation for Innovation are also here but without a booth.
Last night RIR, SSHRC and CFHSS enjoyed dinner with University of Victoria, hosts of Congress 2013. We spoke of the need to bring the country to Victoria and build on the efforts of Congress 2012 that has a theme of social innovation and collaboration. UVic hosted Community University Expo 2008. UVic is home to Office of Community Based Research and a Knowledge Mobilization Unit. We are looking to UVic to create its own big tent not only for all of Canada but for its local communities as well.
We first welcomed Bojan Fürst to the ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche booth at Congress. In 2011, Bojan joined the Harris Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador as manager of Knowledge Mobilization. You can read more about Bojan in the Harris Centre’s newsletter The Regional. In Bojan’s words, “As a manager of knowledge mobilization my job is to connect the needs of Newfoundland and Labrador communities and regions with the expertise that resides at Memorial. I am essentially a matchmaker and my tool of trade is our opportunity, research and expertise online database yaffle.ca. Yaffle is a true repository of ingenuity in this province. It is an essential component of a network of economic development practitioners, policy makers, experts, students and community champions. Yaffle would not be what it is without its users, so I do encourage all of you to register an account, and make it stronger with your own expertise and innovative ideas added to our collective knowledge.” Yaffle has been featured in a number of stories in Mobilize This! and we are pleased and proud to have a Yaffle banner and a Yaffle expert in the RIR booth.
Welcome Bojan, who fits right in not just as a knowledge broker but as someone who is always laughing and enjoying life.
Congress Day 1 was a Governor General Day. See our blog on this announcing His Excellency’s appearance at Congress. As mentioned in the Governor General’s media advisory, ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche (RIR) has been working with SSHRC and United Way Centraide Canada to develop the Community-Campus Collaboration’s Initiative. In his Keynote Address to Congress titled “A True Democracy of Knowledge”, his Excellency said the CCC Initiative “is quite simply a superb initiative. It will help us ensure that social innovation is a key component of Canada’s innovation landscape. This initiative also provides us with a catalytic vehicle to apply knowledge and develop experiential learning.” He quoted from Boyer’s book, Scholarship Reconsidered which presents some directions towards a true democracy of knowledge. Two decades ago Boyer wrote about the scholarship of discovery, the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application and the scholarship of teaching.
These different scholarships map well onto the Community-Campus Collaborations Initiative. Community based research is an important part of engaged discovery. Community service learning and experiential education are important parts of engaged teaching. Knowledge mobilization underpins engaged discovery and all three are critical for the scholarship of integration.
His Excellency also attended a panel offered by the Canada Foundation for Innovation that featured Yves Maufette, Vice-recteur à la recherche et à la creation, RIR-UQAM. The panel examined changing models of service to communities in Canada’s universities. Very engaged. Very knowledge mobilization.
Day 1 of Congress was a very engaged and engaging day.
Canada and UK have made a commitment to social innovation for the first time. David Phipps (RIR-York) had a small part to play.
Le Canada et le Royaume-Uni ont pris un engagement pour l’innovation sociale pour la première fois. David Phipps (RIR-York) avait un petit rôle à jouer.
In September 2011 David Cameron , Prime Minister of Great Britain met with Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. They discussed many matters including international diplomacy, national security, the economy and innovation. Speaking to the House of Commons on September 22, 2012 David Cameron said of Canada, “yours is a home of innovation and technology”. During their meeting they decided to build on these mutual interests of science and innovation by committing to the drafting a Joint Innovation Statement.
David Phipps (RIR-York) was in the UK for 2 weeks of meetings on knowledge mobilization and social innovation starting November 26, 2011. At that time I wrote in Mobilize This! about my meetings with Centre for Research in Families & Relationships (University of Edinburgh) and with Community University Partnership Program (University of Brighton). What I didn’t write about at the time was about my meetings with agencies interested in social innovation. I met with the Young Foundation, a global leader in social innovation, and with NESTA, “the UK’s innovation foundation”. Caroline Martin, Trade Commissioner for science & technology of the Canadian High Commission in London, was immensely helpful in setting up and accompanying me to those meetings. We discussed the importance of social innovation to Canada and the UK, a conversation we have since continued with Nicole Arbour, Team Lead for the Science & Innovation Network of the British High Commission in Ottawa. Together we explored opportunities for collaboration on social innovation with Canadian organizations such as Social Innovation Generation and the McConnell Family Foundation whose leadership of social innovation in Canada parallels that of NESTA and the Young Foundation in the UK.
At the same time Caroline and Nicole were helping their colleagues draft the Joint Innovation Statement called for by Prime Ministers Harper and Cameron. Recognizing the mutual interests of Canada and the UK in social innovation, our conversations helped inform the decision to include social innovation in the text of the Joint Innovation Statement.
As reported by the British High Commission on May 9, 2012 the Joint Innovation statement was signed by the Honourable Ed Fast, Canada’s Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, and Lord Green, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Trade and Investment. The text of the Joint Innovation Statement includes a commitment to support social innovation:
“The Participants will consider to take joint initiatives in the following priority areas (including) Social innovation: Working with academic, government, and civil society partners to leverage research and innovation activities for greater societal benefits.”
“Social Innovation is one outcome of knowledge mobilization for which York has developed an international reputation,” said Robert Haché, York’s vice-president research & innovation. “New discoveries are being made to address persistent social challenges through social innovation. Our conversations with the British and Canadian High Commissions helped inform the decision to include social innovation in the text of the Joint Innovation statement. The outcome reflects the growing international appreciation of the work of York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit and its leadership role in ResearchImpact, Canada’s knowledge mobilization network, in working to turn research into action.”
This joint, diplomatic commitment to social innovation between Canada and the UK finds another home in David Johnston, Governor General of Canada. On February 17, 2012 he wrote of knowledge diplomacy in the Globe & Mail asking, “So how do we bring about a smart and caring world that is at once prosperous, sustainable and resilient? Our ability to work together – to practise the diplomacy of knowledge – will be the key to our success.” As announced on May 3, 2012 by the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS, organizers of Congress 2012), His Excellency will lead a “discussion of cross-sector collaboration and social innovation at Congress 2012 (that) will encourage students, researchers, employees and citizens alike, as we strive for greater prosperity and quality of life for all.” In their May 3 announcement CFHSS also recognized the work of York University, on behalf of RIR in the Community-Campus Collaboration Initiative.
Collaborating for social innovation is now recognized as a priority for Canada and for the UK. RIR-York was there and will be there working with colleagues from Canada and the UK to support knowledge mobilization as a process that enables enhanced social innovation.
University of Waterloo is known more for industry-associated innovation despite many local community engaged initiatives. But when the Governor General returns to the university where he used to be President he will be speaking on collaboration for social innovation thanks in part to RIR.
L’Université de Waterloo est plus connue pour l‘innovation associée à l’industrie, malgré de nombreuses initiatives communautaires locales engagées. Mais lorsque le gouverneur général du Canada revient à l’université qu’il présidait, il s’exprime sur la collaboration au service de l’innovation sociale, grâce, entre autres, au RIR.
Led by York University, ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche (RIR) has exhibited at Congress every year since 2007 – see our post cards and other reports from Congress 2011 posted on Mobilize This! This year Congress is in Waterloo and will be opened by His Excellency, the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada. Nice indeed but what does he have to do with knowledge mobilization? This year, a lot.
As announced on May 3, 2012, by the Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS, organizers of Congress), “The Governor General believes that the creation and sharing of knowledge is critical if we are to effectively and equitably address today’s complex, global issues. It is hoped that the discussion of cross-sector collaboration and social innovation at Congress 2012 will encourage students, researchers, employees and citizens alike, as we strive for greater prosperity and quality of life for all.” CFHSS’s announcement also referenced RIR. “CFHSS has been working with the United Way of Canada, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and ResearchImpact, which are engaged in a joint project, the Community-Campus Connections (CCC) Initiative. Its purpose is to support a culture of collaboration and to marry the resources of communities with those of post-secondary institutions to address persistent social and economic challenges Canadians face today”.
Community-campus collaborations. Cross sector collaboration. Social Innovation. All very knowledge mobilization. His Excellency will be opening Congress with a Big Thinking lecture that will be informed, in part, by the work of the CCC Initiative, a year-long collaboration by York University on behalf of RIR, SSHRC and United Way-Centraide Canada. We are delighted that His Excellency will be speaking on this topic as he opens Congress 2012.
RIR will be there and you will receive daily post cards from Congress posted on this blog.
ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche is pleased to publish a post by guest blogger Robyn Schell who contacted David Phipps (RIR-York) after reading his paper published in December 2011 in Scholarly & Research Communications.
When I read David Phipps’ article about the KTE program at York, I realized I could apply this information right away. I’m a PhD student in the Ed Tech/Learning Design program at Simon Fraser University. I had been asked to review five important papers in relation to a study I conducted this spring about faculty’s experience of transitioning from face-to-face to online teaching at a community college. This, I decided, was a golden opportunity to write “clear language research summaries” as David described in his paper.
I had a very positive response (ie: “LOVE the clear structure, nice!”). Rather than obscuring the core details in an avalanche of information in a ten page document, I organized the highlights of each paper under sections as shown in the color coded list below.
I wrapped up the each summary by posing a “burning” question about the research that examined the content of the research or suggested how one could build on research in the future.
Questions you need to answer in a Clear Language Research Summary
What do you need to know about the research summarized in two or three sentences?
What is this research about?
What did the researchers do (this turned out to often be quite mysterious and rather vague)
What did the researchers find? (sometimes not congruent with the original research question)
How can you use this research? (I improvised with: how is this research useful and why?)
Burning Question (added by us not David Phipps)
Here’s a truncated example of how I applied clear language summary framework with questions numbered to match the summary questions above.
Teaching college courses online versus face-to-face(Smith, Ferguson, & Caris, 2001)
What do you need to know about this research? This research explores the perceptions of instructors moving from a face-to-face teaching to teaching online.
What is this research about? This research seeks to understand the experience of professors teaching online.
What did the researchers do? The researchers interviewed 21 instructors who had taught both online and in the classroom. The interview included open ended or Likert scale questions. They counted the number of times a theme was encountered to identify major themes.
What did they find? The researchers found the instructors’ face-to-face teaching experience was not enough to ease their transition to the online environment. Instructors noted the need to plan in detail well in advance of online course delivery. The instructors claimed their online experience led them to rethink how they delivered their course in both modes.
How is this research useful and why? This research stresses the importance of instructors’ need to more fully understand the online environment before teaching in the online classroom.
Burning Question: Have the issues related to instructors’ transition to the online classroom changed in the years since this paper was published?
In conclusion, by applying the short paper summary method outlined in David’s paper, I was able to target and condense important information about each article I reviewed to provide my audience with information they could quickly access and assess in relation to their own work.
You can contact Robyn about this piece at schell.robyn@gmail.com. You can also contact her if you would like more information about BC KTE community of practice. Our next meeting is June 11 2012 in Vancouver.
References:
Phipps, David. (2011) A Report Detailing the Development of a University-Based Knowledge Mobilization Unit that Enhances Research Outreach and Engagement. Scholarly and Research Communication, 2 (2): 020502, 13 pp. Available here
Smith, G. G., Ferguson, D., & Caris, M. (2001). Teaching college courses online versus face-to-face. T.H.E. Journal, 28 (9), 18 – 22, 24, 26.
Janice Chu (United Way of York Region), Jeremy Laurin (ventureLAB), David Phipps (RIR-York)
York University, United Way of York Region and ventureLAB are collaborating to support social innovation and social enterprises in York Region. On May 15 they will speak about the assets they bring to bear to help address persistent social challenges.
Picture this: Metro Toronto Convention Centre. May 15. Over 2,600 attendees listening to a multi-sectoral panel on social innovation.
That’s what we’re doing at Discovery 2012, Ontario’s premier technology and innovation showcase. Hosted by the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Discovery is Ontario’s annual conference bringing together university, college and industry based researchers, students, entrepreneurs and innovators. Traditionally focused on technology sectors such as green tech, health tech and ICTs, this year Discovery is going social and exploring the role of social innovation and social enterprises in Ontario’s innovation landscape. Mobilize This! has previously written about efforts to introduce social innovation into the federal innovation agenda and on May 15, in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, over 2,600 delegates (well, those that attend the panel at least) will hear this message. York Region’s innovation sector will speak about how we are sowing the seeds of social innovation in York Region and how we are starting to build relationships to support innovators and entrepreneurs seeking to address persistent social, environmental and cultural challenges.
This panel at Discovery represents early conversations with York Region’s vibrant entrepreneurial sector (represented by Lahav Gil of the Kangaroo Group), a regional hospital network (represented by Pat Clifford of Southlake Regional Health Centre) and the three primary supports for innovation in York Region: ventureLAB (York Region’s Regional Innovation Centre represented by CEO, Jeremy Laurin), York University (represented by Vice-President Research & Innovation, Robert Haché) and the United Way of York Region (represented by Janice Chu, Director Community Investments). For the first time in the history of Discovery the community sector will be represented. We will also be joined by Allyson Hewitt, Advisor, Social Innovation and Director, Social Entrepreneurship MaRS, who will reflect on York Region’s assets and efforts and place them in a provincial context.
ventureLAB, York U and UWYR are actively discussing how best to support an emerging cohort of social entrepreneurs. UWYR has a Strength Investments program (itself a social innovation) that has already invested $300,000 in 11 community based innovations to address local opportunities. ventureLAB has an established Build program and Entrepreneurs in Residence that can be made available to social entrepreneurs. York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit will actively broker collaborations between social entrepreneurs and researchers/students so that social innovations are grounded in the latest research. The Innovation York accelerator space at the Markham Convergence Centre, co-located with ventureLAB and other York Region innovation acceleration services such as the York Technology Alliance, will be available to social entrepreneurs seeking a space to grow their businesses.
Stay tuned for details on how we will weave these assets into a coherent value proposition but we have progressed beyond recognizing the need and moved into the “how to” stages. This energy will build on the primary message of the recent Public Policy Forum reportthat spoke of the value of collaboration as a key component of innovation and singled out York Region as a region that was making strides to supporting multi-sectoral collaboration.
Discovery 2013. That’s when we will share the emerging York Region story – still separate silos beginning the dialogue on and action to support social innovation and social entrepreneurship so we can make a difference in the lives of York Region’s diverse citizens. Come with us as we discover social innovation.
Founded in 2006 by York University and the University of Victoria, ResearchImpact is Canada’s knowledge mobilization network. In 2010-2011 ResearchImpact expanded to include Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Guelph and University of Saskatchewan. Responding to local opportunities and constraints has resulted in different models of institutional knowledge mobilization services; however, all six universities have invested in an institutional capacity to support knowledge mobilization among faculty, students and partner organizations.
Now maturing as an interactive working network and having completed an initial period of definition and goal setting, ResearchImpact would like to solicit interest from the academic community to join us in building knowledge mobilization expertise and sharing best practices.
Fondé en 2006 par l’Université York et l’Université de Victoria, RéseauImpactRecherche est un réseau pancanadien de mobilisation des connaissances. En 2010-2011, RéseauImpactRecherche s’est étendu à l’Université Memorial de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador, à l’Université du Québec à Montréal, à l’Université de Guelph et à l’Université de la Saskatchewan. En réagissant aux ouvertures et aux contraintes propres à leurs milieux, les membres ont produit différents modèles de services de mobilisation des connaissances dans leurs établissements; toutefois, les six universités ont en commun d’avoir investi dans leur capacité à favoriser la mobilisation des connaissances pour leurs professeurs, leurs étudiants et leurs divers partenaires.
Après le déroulement d’une phase initiale où il s’est défini et a établi ses objectifs, le RéseauImpactRecherche a atteint la maturité en tant que regroupement fonctionnel et interactif. Il s’agit désormais de susciter dans le milieu universitaire l’intérêt à se joindre au réseau, dans le but de construire une expertise commune en mobilisation des connaissances et de veiller à la diffusion des pratiques exemplaires.
I used to think the ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche (RIR) partner institutions were diverse in our knowledge mobilization practices: St. John’s to Victoria, institution and research unit based, French and English… and then I spent three days in Hamilton at the K* (Kstar) conference.
J’avais l’habitude de penser que les partenaires du RéseauImpactRecherche – ResearchImpact (RIR) étaient variés dans leurs pratiques de mobilisation des connaissances : de St. John’s à Victoria, des institutions et des services de recherche, en français et en anglais…. et puis j’ai passé trois jours à Hamilton la « K* (Kstar) conference »
About sixty knowledge brokers (or innovation brokers, a new name to describe the fact many of us broker beyond just knowledge and work in broader systems of innovation) came to Hamilton, Ontario from 6 continents. I met people from Ghana. Canada. England. Mauritius. Netherlands. Argentina. Scotland. Germany. Australia. United States. France. Nigeria. Vanuatu. Kenya. And there were more. Old. Young. In between. We practice K* in disciplines: communications, health policy, mental health, education, water, climate change, agriculture, health systems, international development, geography, nuclear disposal.Some of us research K*. Some, like me, work in a system of K* serving diverse institutional and community stakeholders. Some of us work in universities. Some work in NGOs. Policy shops. Funding agencies. Think Tanks. Multilateral bodies. Some of us work in linkage and exchange, some in knowledge transfer, some in knowledge mobilization. Our audiences include civil society, government, industry and practitioners as well as the public. We use social media, traditional media and community broadcast systems.
Check some of the talking head videos from the Kstar2012 conference.
What makes a group diverse is, by definition, the unique nature of the participants. Many participants were associated with universities. Some were faculty members or students in research projects. Some were part of university based engaged research projects. Some represented networks of individual researchers from many universities. But as far as I could tell I was the only representative of the University as an Institution supporting a pan-University investment in K* services and RIR was the only national system of Institutions who have made an investment in pan-university K*.
We worked over three days and filtered tons of energy down to three main themes for further development and thinking:
-a global K* network
-assessing impact of K*
-K* in developing countries and the democratizing of different knowledge(s)
Apart from assessing impact, I would not have predicted these foci of K* going into the K* meeting. That’s what diversity can do. It allows the unexpected to happen.
As I reflect on the “diversity” of Canada’s RIR system of knowledge mobilization universities I can put it in perspective and realize that we have a lot in common as a Canadian network. My work on the K* conference allows me to focus on what we share as well as what makes each RIR unit unique. RIR is about to launch plans for expanding Canada’s knowledge mobilization network. As much as possible we will seek to maximize the diversity within our own network so that the unexpected can also happen in Canada.
In the previous two installments of my aha moments from K* you will have seen all the countries that are home to some of the brokers at this conference. What is also impressive is the diversity of disciplines in which we work: communications, health policy, mental health, education, water, climate change, agriculture, health systems, international development, geography, nuclear disposal (yes…really!)
My aha came today in my panel with Glowen and Leandro. We developed a list of common lessons derived from our very different practices. The lessons learned are:
Build trust between partners
Develop capacity for K* in all partners
Use a mix of methodologies
Use web 2.0 tools
Involve traditional media
Peer supports
Knowledge is not static and is co-constructed
Understand the political, social and economic situations of the partners
Build a culture of K* for all participants
Moderator Derek Brien (Executive Director & Co-founder, Pacific Institute of Public Policy, Vanuatu) helped the panelists and the audience dig into this seemingly dichotomous relationship between convergence and divergence. There was general agreement on these common “guidelines” across different contexts but this doesn’t mean that I could hop on a plane and start my own knowledge intermediary practice in Ghana. These guidelines merely serve as a starting point. Knowing them before going into a new setting gives the broker a head start but it doesn’t replace local context and local knowledge. Aha!
But there is also something else starting to crystalize for me. Not so much an aha! as a hmmmmm….
This conference is the closest thing to a K* love-in that I can imagine. We are converging on many issues and many common themes and diverging on some such as the role of K* in advocacy. I am hearing lots of common challenges/opportunities but we’re not moving to solutions/actions. Today someone suggested we need a K* Code of Ethics. That’s a solution to an identified need around differential power in some knowledge relationships. I am hoping through the K* process – which is ongoing beyond these three days – we can identify common challenges/opportunities and move to addressing some common solutions/actions.
Absolutely! @KTExchange: If you're going to do CBPR, you have to be willing to learn a different way, not be the one who sets the agenda 43 minutes ago
scholars talking about their projects at Congress. And there are three pan-Canadian organizations that support them with a presence in the book fair, the agora of Congress: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC); Canadian Federation of Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) and ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche (RIR). Our good friends at the Canada Foundation for Innovation are also here but without a booth.
