ARCHIVED – Summative Evaluation of the Metropolis Project Phase II: Knowledge Transfer Activities and Impacts

3. KT and the Knowledge System Conceptual Framework

KT is one of several functions that in combination constitute knowledge systems. At the most basic level the other constituent functions of knowledge systems are knowledge creation (research) and application (policy making and program delivery). The goal of KT is to ensure research users have access to and use the best available research knowledge for informing policy and program decisions. KT focuses both on knowledge products, processes and application (impact).

KT that focuses on knowledge products is often referred to as knowledge dissemination. The primary intent is to ensure that existing research knowledge is transferred to the right people, at the right time and in the right form to support optimum use. Research papers, books and reports, including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, are examples of research products often transferred to end-users. Both print and electronic media are used to transfer these knowledge products to users. Efforts to make these traditional knowledge products more user friendly include executive summaries and plain language translations. Other products or activities where already existing research knowledge is transferred to users include conferences and workshops. This type of KT is well established among academic researchers.

KT that focuses on knowledge processes is primarily concerned with establishing linkages and knowledge exchanges between researchers (knowledge producers) and knowledge users (policy makers and service providers). Knowledge brokering can be defined as the building of relationships and networks between researchers and research users to facilitate the transfer and use of existing research knowledge, and to support the production of new research knowledge in support of evidence-informed decision-making. Knowledge brokers are increasingly seen as having a role to play in facilitating and sustaining collaborative working relationships between researchers and research users that include all aspects of the research process from setting research priorities, to posing research questions, establishing research designs, doing the research, transferring findings, and evaluating the results.

Both the theoretical literature and empirical research findings agree that effective KT and knowledge application is increased when researchers and research users collaborate throughout all phases of the knowledge system processes – production, transfer, and application. Research knowledge application or utilization in one form or another is a precondition for impact.

For many academics, contemporary efforts to target non-academic users of research knowledge are a new focus for KT. Some researchers embrace this function and, as far as possible, take responsibility for ensuring non-academic knowledge users are provided research findings in a timely fashion and an appropriate form. Other academics eschew this role and prefer to have it done by others. Partly in response to this, a new position is emerging within contemporary knowledge systems. This position has been referred to in a variety of ways. Increasingly, however, in the contemporary Canadian context it is referred to as knowledge broker [ Note 10 ].

___________

10. Material in this section is abstracted from H. D. Dickinson (with P. Graham), 2009. Knowledge Transfer & Public Policy: A Literature Review and Synthesis. Paper prepared for CIC.

Page details

Date modified: