Collaborating for Social Good / Collaborer pour le bien collectif

David Phipps, RIR-York

What happens when 88 people get together to talk social innovation? You get the start of a Regional and systems level response to address persistent social challenges. You also get to dance!

Que se passe-t-il lorsque 88 personnes se rassemblent pour discuter d’innovation sociale? Vous obtenez l’émergence d’une réponse à des défis sociaux persistants, et ce, à l’échelle régionale et systémique.

Collaborating for Social Good was sponsored by the conference series “Business Innovation in Changing Times” a capacity building series for York Region designed to accelerate innovation and business growth. On April 18, delegates from the private, public and non-profit sectors came together to discuss how to collaborate to create social benefits. There were 29 delegates from the non-profit sector, 35 from business, 11 from education and 13 from government. York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit was pleased to be part of the steering committee. We also were an exhibitor and presented on a panel with Women’s Centre of York Region and ventureLAB.

Much of the day was spent mind mapping to identify drivers, issues (“burrs”) and opportunities. Maps were developed and shared and commented upon. In the end the maps were synthesized into opportunities/challenges for York Region. A group of 25 participants came together on May 13 to continue the dialogue. These 25 were comprised of 10 from business, 6 from government, 3 from education and 6 from the nonprofit sector. This group came together to begin to address the two social innovation priorities derived from the mind map synthesis: 1) knowledge transfer; and, 2) taking risks.

Mind maps

Three things were striking from this event:

1. There were more private sector than non-profit sector participants: often the non-profit sector dominates the discourse of social innovation. This has been true at York’s Knowledge Mobilization Forums and at many of the knowledge mobilization events we have held in York Region. Collaborating for Social Good seems to be the start of a new conversation where business has an equal voice.
2. This was a Region wide conversation: there was no dominant sector or municipality.
3. Knowledge transfer – sharing across sectors – was identified as a priority for the Region.

Huge shout outs to Kirsten Eastwood (Women’s Centre of York Region) and the York Region Social Innovation Collaboration for their time and talents in organizing and executing this wonderful event.

We also embedded some arts based activities. Two poets from York University attended and interpreted the day in poetry. Sara-Jane Gloutnez composed “Cubism” and she collaborated with Christian Quaresma on an “Untitled” poem. These poems capture some of the thoughts and themes of the day in a style that is both foreign and familiar at the same time.

And thanks to Seneca College we danced. Seneca sent three students who led us in some Zumba and Latin dance. This was an amazingly successful activity. You have to trust each other when dancing. You also need trust for a successful collaboration.

Dance may just be a novel vehicle for knowledge mobilization!

Dancing for collaboration

Social Media for Research / Les médias sociaux pour la recherche

David Phipps, RIR-York

Can you use social media in your research? Yes! Can you build capacity among research administrators to help researchers use social media in you research? Yes, and Krista Jensen (@atomickitty) shows you how.

Pouvez-vous utiliser les médias sociaux dans vos recherches? Oui! Pouvez-vous développer les compétences des administrateurs de la recherche afin d’aider les chercheurs à employer les médias sociaux dans leurs recherches? Oui, et Krista Jensen (@atomickitty) vous montre comment cela peut être fait.

York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit has been actively building capacity for social media as a tool for research dissemination and engagement. In 2012, we published a book chapter that presented some social media tools and how they can be used in research and knowledge mobilization. Last year we also provided a variety of social media workshops including on overview of social media, a 2.5 hour twitter for learning and research workshop, a wordpress workshop as well as a workshop on building a social media strategy.

Krista Jensen (@atomickitty)

This year we were invited by the organizers of the annual Canadian Association of University Research Administrators (CAURA) to host a workshop on social media. The audience was research administrators but the objective was supporting social media strategies for research projects (even though we frequently delved into social media as a tool to support the research services office). Increasingly granting agencies are demanding knowledge mobilization or knowledge translation strategies for grant applications. In February 2012, we gave a knowledge mobilization webinar for CAURA. Increasingly these knowledge mobilization strategies involve social media. Hence the CAURA workshop this year.

We had 13 people show up, which was ideal. There was some hands on group work that would not have been feasible with a larger group. The presentation is available below or here on the KMbYork Slide Share account.

Some of the issues raised by the group included:

• Resourcing – who does this and how do you pay for it?> Make it someone’s job and ensure research grant budgets have line items for social media including for purchasing pro accounts (an eligible expense on many granting programs)
• Risks – do you need policies to manage risk created by social media?> Social media is just another channel… have policies to manage risk and ensure that social media use is anticipated in those policies
• Role of corporate communications?> A great ally so long as they serve for more than brand stewardship
• Volume – how to manage the volume when you already can’t get through all your e mail?> See resourcing and make it someone’s job for the research office or the research program.

The audience was very engaged. Krista Jensen put the session together and presented 95% of it. The audience appreciated her experience and wisdom. Everyone came back after break (in fact, we picked up one person!). Email and blackberries were almost wholly absent from the session (always a good sign) and evaluations were more than positive. Respondents were asked 5 questions with a maximum score of 5. We received 10 evaluations for a total possible score of 250. Krista received a score of 243/250, a score of 97.2%. And when asked who was thinking differently after the session every hand went up. When asked who will be acting differently after the session about 80% of the hands stayed up.

Thanks Krista for the excellent workshop. And thanks to Gary Myers (@kmbeing) who came along as a social media and knowledge mobilization expert to lend his experience to the discussion.

KMbuddies for Life / Des amis mobilisés pour la vie

Michael Johnny, RIR YorkU

Michael Johnny reflects on his seven year working relationship in knowledge mobilization with Joaquin Trapero from University of Victoria.

Michael Johnny témoigne de sept années de travail en mobilisation des connaissances en collaboration avec Joaquin Trapero de l’Université de Victoria.

I had to look back to see, but the first communication was an email on February 16, 2006.  It was an introductory email from Joaquin Trapero, the new Knowledge Transfer Specialist at the University of Victoria.  So it makes his career in KMb span over seven years.  And now because of the formal launch of the Research Partnership and Knowledge Mobilization (RPKM) office at the University of Victoria, Dr. Joaquin Trapero no longer has KMb within his portfolio of responsibility.  It has been a few years since he has worked as a KT Specialist, moving on to manage the Institutional Portfolio program.  Now this is his full-time responsibility.

I had wanted to write this blog for almost four days now, and even now while I write, I am staring at the screen looking for words to capture my feelings.  I remember very clearly the early days of this journey and our work together where we’d meet four times a year– twice here in Toronto and twice in Victoria.  Our Intellectual Property Mobilization grant supported this initial ‘experiment’ of institutional knowledge mobilization services.  Capably led by Dr. Richard Keeler (former AVP Research, University of Victoria) and Dr. David Phipps (Executive Director, Research Services and Knowledge Exchange, York University), Joaquin and I were exploring what it meant to be knowledge brokers and helping lead the development of a national network.

So many memories poured back over the past few days while reflecting back on seven years:  our first Congress at University of Saskatchewan back in 2007 (which was the source of infamous beer, pizza and KMb planning talks); one of Joaquin’s first trips to Toronto to visit with us (where we naively planned a day-long event which began with a breakfast at 7:30 am EST… that’s 4:30 PST… oops); a decision to leave the KTS portfolio to take on UVic’s Institutional Portfolio (but fortunately allowed him to retain working responsibilities in KMb); and the success of KMb within our institutions which has helped enable the growth of ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche.

Congress this year is going to be held in Victoria.  How fitting!  While Joaquin will not be involved in the RIR booth at the book fair, David Phipps and I are going to make sure we meet up for one last beer, pizza and KMb planning talks!  And with that to look forward to, I am happy to share how I am feeling now and that is grateful.  What I have learned from Joaquin over these seven years?  Sharing a commitment to develop strong KMb programs and support RIR, attention to detail and planning, shared values around processes for successful KMb, and having fun along the way!

Joaquin, my friend, I appreciate all you’ve done to make this work in KMb a success and a pleasure.   I wish you success and happiness!  Thanks for a great seven years!

Joaquin Trapero, David Phipps and Michael Johnny

York, Harvard and Oxford Universities Talk Social Innovation

The following was originally posted on YFile on March 25, 2013. It is reposted here with permission.

Representatives from York University, Harvard University and the University of Oxford met on March 4 and 5 in London, England, to articulate their shared vision regarding the role of higher education institutions in supporting social innovation and social enterprise.

David Phipps (left), executive director of research & innovation services, and chief knowledge mobilizer at York University; Daniela Papi, program design and outreach manager at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University; Meghan O. Mahoney, assistant director of Social and Cultural Entrepreneurship at the Harvard Innovation Lab; and Jennifer Casasanto, director of external programs for Harvard University’s School of Engineering & Applied Sciences, took part in the meetings. The group explored their different models of institutional support for social innovation.

Hosted by the Canadian High Commission in London, England, they were joined by representatives from the British High Commission, the McConnell Family Foundation (Canada), Social Innovation Generation (Canada), and the Young Foundation and the Economic & Social Research Council, both based in the U.K.

Universities play an integral role in the intellectual, cultural, and economic development of their surrounding regions. In addition to producing new knowledge and talented graduates, universities contribute to innovation, productivity and prosperity through technology transfer and commercialization. However, the role of the university in the growing areas of social innovation and social entrepreneurship is still emerging.

“Some faculty members and students have been active in helping find solutions to pressing social and environmental challenges; however, universities are not making the most of this potential. Universities need to become more effective and act systematically to maximize the impact of their research and teaching,” said Will Norman, director of research at the Young Foundation.

To date, York, Harvard, and Oxford have developed slightly varying approaches to the task.

Under the leadership of Robert Haché, vice-president research and innovation, the Office of Research Services at York University provides services that support the development of social innovations arising from the research of faculty and students who work in collaboration with partners from the public and non-profit sectors. “It is important that universities play a role in social innovation as we do in harnessing innovation in science and technology,” Haché said. “The discussions started by York and our colleagues at Harvard and Oxford will help to develop an international consensus on the roles of universities in leading and supporting initiatives in social innovation.”

The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, located within the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, focuses on mainstreaming entrepreneurial approaches for social change throughout the School and the University through teaching, research and practice. “While we award full scholarships to accomplished social entrepreneurs seeking to complete a one-year MBA,” notes Pamela Hartigan, executive director of the Skoll Centre, “we recognize that most students will not be entrepreneurs. Yet they can be ‘entrepreneuring’ wherever their careers take them. Our goal is to give them the exposure, the tools and the confidence to contribute their talents to improving the state of the world.”

Harvard University is also committed to social innovation. In one of the University’s centers of activity, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), students are educated in the process of “design thinking” and problem solving within complex systems. Harvard’s undergraduate engineering degrees build on a strong foundation in the liberal arts so that graduates bring a uniquely humanistic approach to design thinking for social innovation. An important partner for Harvard SEAS is the Harvard Innovation Lab, a university-wide interdisciplinary resource center for advising, mentoring and incubation of ideas.

“Our mission is to instill in our students the desire to seek out solutions and mitigations to complex global, economic, and environmental challenges,” says Fawwaz Habbal, executive dean of the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “Through our strong commitment to building students’ core technical competence, as well as enhancing their capacities for innovative thinking, leadership, and societal awareness, we prepare our students to make significant contributions to society.”

Working under the banner of Relevance through Engagement, the universities identified three interconnected ways in which institutions of higher education can accelerate the development of social innovations. The first involves applying knowledge and teaching to address real-world problems. The second will see knowledge mobilization complementing traditional scholarship by working closely with research partners. The third area focuses on continuing to develop established and emerging leaders of social innovation. The three universities will develop relationships with national agencies, foundations and funders to explore each of these aspects so they can share and disseminate practices that will enhance each university’s contributions to social innovation.

The British High Commission provided the financial support for the meeting.

David Phipps and York U’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit Named Canada’s Biggest Influencers

The following was originally posted in YFile, York Univesity’s Daily News, on February 6, 2013 and is reposted here with permission.

David Phipps

David Phipps, executive director, Research & Innovation Services, which includes York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit (KMb), has been named the most influential knowledge broker in Canada, according to a report by Knowledge Mobilization Works, a consulting and training company based in Ottawa. It is a repeat honour for Phipps, because in 2011, he was named the most influential knowledge mobilizer by Knowledge Mobilization Works.

When the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization 100, a survey run by Knowledge Mobilization Works, asked respondents to rank the biggest influences of their knowledge mobilization practice, Phipps topped the list.

Also mentioned among the top influencers in Canada were Michele Dupuis of the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and Wilfred Laurier University knowledge mobilizer Shawna Reibling.  The survey collected responses from Oct. 15 to Dec. 16, 2012.

“Engaging the community through knowledge mobilization initiatives is an important facet of University research,” said Robert Haché, York’s vice-president research & innovation. “We are proud of York’s national and international reputation as a leader in knowledge mobilization and it continues to grow and thrive. This recognition for David and the Knowledge Mobilization team at York is well-deserved.”

York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Blog, Mobilize This! was named the most read KMb resource and the most consulted blog. Michael Johnny, manager of York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit also received a mention in the second most influential knowledge mobilizer category.

Michael Johnny

In collaboration with the University of Victoria, York University piloted institutional knowledge mobilization in 2005 under a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and SSHRC. York University now leads ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche, Canada’s knowledge mobilization network that also includes Memorial University of Newfoundland & Labrador, Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Guelph and University of Saskatchewan. ResearchImpact as a network received a mention in the second most influential knowledge mobilizer category.

York University works closely with United Way York Region to deliver knowledge mobilization services to the York Region community, municipal and regional agencies.

Knowledge mobilization is a suite of services that connect university research and expertise to government and community agencies to help these organizations make better informed decisions about public policy and social services. Knowledge mobilization is a process that enables social innovation.

Peter Levesque, president and CEO of Knowledge Mobilization Works, undertook the survey to obtain a snapshot of individuals who people see as influential in their knowledge mobilization practice in Canada.

Founded in January 2007, Knowledge Mobilization Works supports individuals and organizations to create incentives and infrastructure for knowledge mobilization.

To view the results of the survey, click here.

Attribution – Is It Really a Big Deal? / L’Attribution – faut-il en faire un cas?

David Phipps, RIR-York

Many people worry about attribution.  How much influence did we have on an outcome? Many people except York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit, that is. This post starts some thinking that arose with the help of the Knowledge Brokers Forum… and some time by a pool.

Nombreux sont ceux qui s’inquiètent à propos de l’attribution. Quel degré d’influence avons-nous eu sur un résultat? De nombreuses personnes, mais pas au sein de l’Unité de mobilisation des connaissances de York, cependant. Ce billet présente une réflexion qui a surgi grâce au Forum des courtiers de connaissances… et au temps passé sur le bord de la piscine.

Attribution [John Mayne, CDN J. Prog. Eval. (2001) 16(1): 1-24] is the degree to which research as well as other inputs informs a decision. If an impact happens a long time after the research is completed then it is harder to attribute impact to the research study. In a networked and complex environment there are multiple inputs into any decision confounding the ability to attribute impact to a particular study. This is generally agreed to be true. Or is it?

On November 18, 2012, I began a discussion on the Knowledge Brokers Forum listserv:

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“A colleague and I were discussing the issue of attribution in knowledge exchange and I thought I would read up a little about it. So I turn to my usual sources when I want to read someone else’s work instead of do it myself (!):

• Nutley et al: Using Evidence
• Bennet & Bennet: Knowledge Mobilization in the Social Sciences
• Strauss et al: Knowledge Translation in Health Care

“Attribution” is not to be found in any index in these books.

A search in google or google scholar isn’t much help because the word “attribution” usually comes up as part of a Creative Commons license.

So I am wondering… is attribution really a big deal or do we talk about it without much of an evidence base (for more on this see my earlier blog Knowledge Hypocrites)?”

*******************************************************

I received 30 comments from around the world – for detail on comments see the compilation of comments- Attribution: KBF Responses

In York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit we rarely see attribution as an issue. As described in a recent book chapter our work has helped inform the cooling policies for the City of Toronto, a new funding program for United Way of York Region, a sustainability program for rural businesses and a new way of delivering immigrant settlement services in York Region as examples. When we are able to demonstrate non-academic impact of our work it is often directly attributed to the collaboration we supported. When speaking of the Green Economy Centre, Valerie Ryan, CEO of Nottawasaga Futures, said, “We could not have done this without the Knowledge Mobilization Unit”.

So what’s the big deal about attribution?

I think the role of a particular actor in knowledge mobilization/research utilization is important – see table below:

Actor	Does it matter	Why or Why Not?
Academic research institution	No	In a REF world institutions will create good news stories about any impact, no matter how small, no matter how little research contributed to the impact.
Researchers	Maybe	Depends on how the researcher is being measured which might depend on if they are employed by a university or a think tank or a community based researcher.
Think Tank/NGO	Yes	Think Tanks and NGOs are often funded based on ability to demonstrate impact and the attribution of their efforts.
Funders	Maybe	Private donors want to understand what impact their funding made. Academic research funding councils are beginning to care about impact but they are concerned with narratives more than attribution.
Knowledge brokers	No	If the goal is to broker successful collaborations or access to knowledge then the impact arising from those collaborations is nice but anecdotal.
End users	No	They got an impact. Attributing that to research or any other input is less relevant than the impact itself.
Evaluators	Yes	This is what they do. They are employed by those who care about impact and attribution.

Academic institutions routinely deal with attribution in technology transfer and commercialization. When an academic institution grants a license to a patent the attribution issue is dealt with up front by agreeing on a royalty rate. The royalty rate acknowledges there will be other inputs en route to market; however, the academic institution will create a REF case study regardless of a small or large royalty rate.

But that’s not the whole story.  A KB Forum response from Larysa Lysenko connected me to an article from Annette Boaz and colleagues. Only a portion of the article discusses attribution and in that discussion were two little sentences:

“The process by which the research is done might also have an impact on policy. For example, research in collaborative projects may have an impact prior to the production of research outputs.”

This was my “Aha Moment”. As described in a recent paper, York works almost exclusively in a co-production paradigm where the decision maker partner is an active participant in the research endeavour. The decision making process for our research partners occurs continuously during and after the collaboration. Decisions may be informed during the research process, not solely after the research is concluded.

The Knowledge Brokers (No – above) in York’s institutional (No – above) Knowledge Mobilization Unit promote a co-production method in which impacts may precede outputs. Attribution is therefore not a big deal for us. This certainly doesn’t deny the importance of Attribution in other contexts and the role of methods such as contribution analysis and productive interactions to address the issue. It’s just not a big deal for us.

And I was sitting by a pool in Ft. Lauderdale reading Annette’s paper when I had my “Aha Moment” underscoring the need to get away and just think.

David showing off his ResearchImpact T Shirt in Ft. Lauderdale

2013 York KMb Learning Events / Les activités d’apprentissage offertes par York MdC en 2013

York KMb is offering sessions for researchers, staff and graduate students to help make their research relevant to professional practice and policy development.

York MdC offre des séances de formation à l’attention des professeurs, du personnel et des étudiants gradués afin de les aider à accroître la pertinence de leurs recherches sur le plan de la pratique professionnelle et du développement de politiques.

For Winter 2013, the KMb Unit at York will be offering the following learning sessions:

Social Media 101 – This lunch hour session will provide an overview of social media tools and their relevance to collaborative research projects.  January 16^th 12:00-1:00 York Lanes 280A; March 4^th 12:00-1:00 York Lanes 280A

Social Media 201 – This session will provide more detailed information on the strategies and tools for social media tools and their relevance to collaborative research projects, such as analytics and partnering strategies.   March 13^th 1:30-4:00 York Lanes 280A

Social Media Strategy Building – Want to start using social media tools but don’t want to fall victim to “shiny object syndrome”? This hands on session will focus on getting a plan together and planning steps to implement it.  February 20^th 9:30-12:00 York Lanes 280A; April 18^th 9:30-12:00 York Lanes 280A

Twitter – A 2.5 hour hands-on session where Twitter is introduced within a research context. Participants can set up an account and learn about practical applications for their research. February 12^th 1:30-4:00 York Research Tower 519

O3 – O3 is an online collaborative tool for available free to researchers, which can facilitate effective and efficient collaboration (without flooding your email inbox!)  April 25^th 9:30-12:00 York Lanes 280A

WordPress – Blogging is emerging as a popular medium to share information and express ideas. Researchers are finding interesting uses for blogs to complement their scholarship. Join us and learn what blogging can do to enhance your KMb efforts. January 28^th 9:30-12:00 York Lanes 280A; March 26^th 1:30-4:00 York Lanes 280A

Effective Community Engagement – What are successful practices in engaging community around research?  What needs to be considered to effectively engage, build relationships and strong partnerships outside of the university?  This 2.5 hour workshop will introduce values, examples of good practices and allow for dialogue to enhance your engagement efforts. April 2^nd 1:30-4:00 York Lanes 280A

Good Practices in KMb – Learn from examples at York U and across Canada.  What practices seem to work effectively?  How can we determine effectiveness?  How can I connect need to practice?  This 2.5 hour workshop will engage participants in the context of their own research projects. April 24^th 9:30-12:00 York Lanes 280A

KMb and Communications – What are the intersections and where do these two diverge?  This 2.5 hour session will introduce you to knowledge mobilization; explore the relationships between the two and share examples on how they can complement one another and how they are unique.  February 7^th 9:30-12:00 York Research Tower 519

KMb Strategy Building – Granting councils are asking more and more for research teams to identify their KMb strategy. In this hands on session, learn about strategic elements, create a draft strategy for your project, and tips on how to present your strategy. April 30^th 1:30-4:00 York Lanes 280A

Clear Language Writing and Design – Sessions designed to introduce the principles and practical tips on writing for the reader, including diverse audiences.  May 13^th 1:00-4:00 York Lanes 280A

 

To register for any of the sessions, please visit http://bit.ly/KMbYorkLearning or contact Krista Jensen, KMb Officer, at kejensen@yorku.ca or ext 88847

York University’s 2012 Year in Review / Revue de l’année 2012 de l’université york

David Phipps, RIR-York

Not quite an annual report but we have crunched the numbers for York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit’s activities for 2012. As you can see, we were busy at home and on the road.

Sans être exactement un rapport annuel, nous avons compilé les chiffres relatifs aux activités de l’Unité de mobilisation des connaissances de York pour 2012. Comme vous pouvez le constater, nous avons été bien occupés à la maison comme sur la route.

This table illustrates the traditional metrics of our activities with calendar 2012 compared to total cumulative numbers since we began operating in February 2012. But numbers tell only part of the story. The rest of our activities are highlighted below.

	2006-2012	2012
# Faculty Involved	265	25
# Graduate Students Involved	148	6
# Information sessions for faculty and students	189	21
# Information sessions for community	206	21
# requests for brokering	298	52
# agencies involved in KMb partnerships	226	21
Community Partner funding raised	$1.1M	$95K
York Research Contract funding raised	$1.2M	0
York KMb grant funding raised	$23.8M	$6.2M
# Research Summaries	173	59

Social media: this year we surpassed 100,000 views on our blog, Mobilize This!, 5500 views of our ResearchImpact YouTube channel and 3000 twitter followers.  We’re not Lady Gaga or Oprah or Justin Beiber but we’re rocking the social world of knowledge mobilization!

Capacity building sessions: This year saw a greater variety of capacity building sessions on and off campus offering workshops in social media, knowledge mobilization planning and internships. Some of these are delivered with faculty and community co-presenters.

Funding: In addition to the ongoing support and leadership of the Vice-President Research & innovation, York’s we received a $141,000 SSHRC Public Outreach Grant partnered with the CDN Homelessness Research Network and United Way York Region.

International Reach: This year saw us engaging with agencies from around the world. We hosted visiting scholars from the University of Sheffield, Scottish Agricultural College and Telethon Institute for Child Health Research (Australia). We also collaborated with academics, thinks tanks and government agencies from Sweden, UK, Australia, US, Ghana, Vanuatu, Argentina, and the Development Research Uptake for Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA) network, a network of 24 African universities seeking to build capacity to make development research accessible for the benefit of their local communities – knowledge mobilization by a different name! This international reach helps to position York University, the ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche network and Canada as global leaders in knowledge mobilization.

Honours and Awards: This year we were privileged to be awarded a global best practice award by the EU-based Knowledge Economy Network. David Phipps was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his national leadership in knowledge mobilization and was again named as Canada’s most influential knowledge mobilizer in the Canadian KMb 100. In addition, the Canadian KMb 100 identified Mobilize This! and the ResearchImpact website as the most frequently read knowledge mobilization blog and website respectively.

Presentations:  York, on behalf of the ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche network were busy during conference season. We presented at the following conferences: K* Conference, Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum; Congress 2012; CAURA 2012; Innovation Partnership 2012; OCE Discovery 2012; Partners in Prevention 2012; Occupy Impact. We also made presentations at U Manitoba; Dalhousie; U. Toronto; U Saskatchewan. We also launched the call for new RIR members, applications due January 25.

Publishing: This year we continued our peer reviewed publications but also were published in some highly read international sources including the Guardian Higher Education Network and the London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences blog. Our peer reviewed publications included an article on ResearchSnapshot clear language research summaries published in Scholarly and Research Communication, a book chapter on social media and knowledge mobilization and a report on knowledge mobilization and social innovation.

Impact: We helped support the launch of a new choreography, Buggzzz, in which the moves and costumes of York Faculty of Fine Arts professors were informed by the research of entomologists from York’s Biology Department. The Biology professors were present at the premier and co-facilitated a round table discussion with the Fine Arts professors.

And this year we uncovered an amazing impact story of the collaboration between knowledge mobilization intern, Naomi Nichols, and the Youth Emergency Shelter (YES) Peterborough. Their collaboration produced a novel life skills mentoring program and turned YES into a social enterprise generating revenue from operations and securing new funding streams. It also helped Naomi to win the PhD thesis prize from the Faculty of Education as well as result in numerous publications and a book in progress. Look for more on this amazing story in 2013.

2012 has been another great year for knowledge mobilization at York and in Canada. And since the world didn’t end on December 21, 2012 it looks like we’ll have the chance to do even better in 2013!

Another KM-bee Leaves the Bee Hive / Une autre abeille de la mobilisation quite la ruche

David Phipps, RIR-York

Gary Myers, a former volunteer in York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit, has joined another York KMb Alumnus working in knowledge mobilization at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Their contributions to the field continue even beyond their work at York University.

Gary Myers, qui a été bénévole à l’Unité de mobilisation des connaissances de York, a rejoint un autre ancien élève de l’Unité de MdC de York au sein du Centre de toxicomanie et de santé mentale (CAMH). Leurs contributions au champ s’étendent bien au-delà de leur travail à l’Université York.

Jason Guriel

It gives us great pleasure here at York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit to have another one of our alumni fly the knowledge mobilization nest (or KM “bee”-hive) to land a knowledge mobilization job in the field. First, we saw Jason Guriel, one of our summer grad students – and poet extraordinaire – find his way to working at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health as Communications Associate at EENet – the Evidence Exchange Network at CAMH.

Now, another of our York U graduates, and Knowledge Mobilization Unit volunteers, Gary Myers, has been hired by CAMH to work as Knowledge Exchange Events and Resources Planner as part of the Provincial Systems Support Program (PSSP).

Working in the Knowledge Mobilization Unit, both gained experience in the world of knowledge mobilization, and both helped develop the ResearchSnapshot format of clear language research summaries that has been adopted by several institutions including CAMH. Gary also helped organize our successful Knowledge Mobilization Expos, and worked for several years as a volunteer research assistant in a Health Psychology Lab at York University.

Gary Myers

Gary is an active member in the Canadian Knowledge Transfer & Exchange Community of Practice, and he is interested in how social media is being used for knowledge exchange. He has been writing a blog for the past few years about Knowledge Mobilization (Knowledge mobilization) at KMbeing.com.

Along with being co-author of a paper about clear language research summaries and a book chapter on the role of social media in knowledge mobilization, Gary was also a co-presenter at a UK knowledge broker conference “Bridging the Gap Between Research, Policy and Practice: The Importance of Intermediaries [knowledge brokers] in Producing Research Impact” in November 2011.

In addition to his knowledge mobilization experience, Gary worked in the hospitality industry as both a flight attendant and guest service agent dealing with a variety of high profile and diverse individuals from around the world.

Thank you Gary for your contributions to knowledge mobilization at York and good luck mobilizing knowledge (or at least transferring and exchanging it…. they use KTE) at CAMH.

Merry Mobilizing from the KMb Unit at York

Merry Mobilizing from the Knowledge Mobilization Unit at York University!

Back row left to right:

Paula Elias, Research Translation Assistant

Jane Wedlock, Knowledge Mobilization Officer at the United Way York Region

Christina Ransom, Data and Communications Assistant

Krista Jensen, Knowledge Mobilization Officer

Michael Johnny, Manager, Knowledge Mobilization

Front row left to right:

Sabah Haque, Research Translation Assistant

David Phipps, Executive Director – Research & Innovation Services