Transcript Document

Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada
Conseil de recherches en
sciences humaines du Canada
Knowledge Exchange & Knowledge Mobilization:
How do they increase impact?
Engaging with Scottish Local Authorities
June 11, 2010, University of Glasgow
Craig McNaughton
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
Outline of presentation
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Keys to KMb impact
SSHRC KMb programming
SSHRC’s definition of KMb
A ‘two-way’ model for KMb
Illustration of the model
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Two keys to KMb impact
1. Ensure the knowledge is relevant to the partner
or target audience
2. Ensure the knowledge is relevant to the
academics
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SSHRC programs in KMb
Aid to Scholarly Journals
Aid to Research Workshops & Conferences
Public Outreach
Knowledge Impact in Society
Strategic Knowledge Clusters
Community-University Research Alliances (CURA)
Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI)
Research grants (strategic & standard)
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An inclusive definition of KMb
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SSHRC definition of KMb
Knowledge mobilization is about ensuring that all
citizens benefit from publicly funded research.
It can take many forms, but the essential objective is
to allow research knowledge to flow both within the
academic world, and between academic researchers
and the wider community.
By moving research knowledge into society,
knowledge mobilization increases the intellectual,
economic, social and cultural impact of that
knowledge.
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Public Outreach – Summary Table
Year Awarded
#
Grants
Selected Topics
2001 (INE)
5
Sustainable development, higher education, e-commerce
2004 (INE)
8
Privacy, literacy, popularizing academic research
2005 ( INE)
42
Equity, auto industry, community theatre
2007 (INE)
5
Cyber atlas, immigration and settlement
2007 (MBF)
10
Risk management, corporate social responsibility, regional
innovation and policy, developing indigenous commercial code
2008 (MBF)
15
Commercialization of a product (resistant concrete), improving
medication safety, corporate social responsibility
2008
(Environment)
18
Environmental health atlas, oceans management, global citizen
consultation on climate change
2008 (North)
13
Pipeline development, arctic policy
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Strategic Knowledge Clusters – Summary Table
Year Awarded
#
Grants
Selected Topics
2004 – 2005
(Development)
31
Child welfare / development / school reform(x3), sustainability,
philosophy of time, media governance, immigration, Aboriginal
communities and communication technologies
2005-2006
(Development)
23
Immigration, bullying, healthy communities, environmental
vulnerability
2005-2006
(Completion)
23
Canadian labour market, early child development, Time and
universe, Disability policy, Science and technology studies
2006-2013
7
Justice system, business ethics, science and technology studies,
Aboriginal economic development, Canadian history and
environment, population change
2007-2014
11
Refugees, early childhood development, Canada- Europe dialogue,
homelessness, childhood and violence prevention, Canadian
literature, heritage, international entrepreneurship, sustainable
prosperity, history and education, business sustainability, refugee
research network
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Knowledge Impact in Society – Summary table
Year
Awarded
# Grants
Topics
20052008
10
(5 extended)
Child development and care (x2), Community
care / community capacity, Montreal heritage and
public history, public policy, rural economy /
agriculture, violence against women, sustainable
regions, rural community development / tourism
20072010
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Business sustainability, rural economy,
Immigration and labour markets, Urban
Aboriginal economic development, regional
business networks, energy industry and change,
responsible investing, public policy and
governance, business sustainability, rural
economy
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KMb infrastructure at Canadian universities
• York U: university-community/government matching
services – interactive Web site, online tools, broadband
networks, KM in the AM (university-community/government
breakfasts), special events (e.g., Aboriginal Policy
Research Forum, Science and Civic Engagement
Symposium), etc.
• U Victoria: Research Help Desk, interdisciplinary graduate
courses in community-based research, student-led
research grants from the BC Government, CommunityBased Summer Internship Program, etc.
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• Memorial U: yaffle.ca (university-community search engine),
public policy forums, videos, reports, regional workshops,
graduate student-industry knowledge exchange, synergy
sessions, etc.
• U Saskatchewan: Illative Blog, Policy Wiki, visioning events,
social science research laboratory (web-based & telephonebased interviews, economic behavioural lab, data sets, GIS
systems, mobile interviews)
• …among others – e.g., UQAM (recent report on KMb mission
of the university – L’UQAM : une mission particulière de
mobilisation des connaissances)
KMb & socio-economic impact
Impact
University
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Society
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KMb: socio-economic & academic impact
Socio-economic
impact
University
Society
Academic
impact
(quality)
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Value of KMb to scholarship
1. KMb provides an opportunity to test theory against
practice
2. KMb invites new or supplementary data and
knowledge resources
3. KMb draws in financial, human and material
resources in support of research
Peer review and KMb
• Peer review in the university means that
researchers must communicate their findings.
Why? So they can be criticised and thereby
improve their findings.
• The same principle applies in the wider circles of
experts created by KMb
• Scholarly peer review is still central, but
depending on the intellectual project, it may be
advisable to bring in a wider range of experts
from other disciplines, sectors and knowledge
cultures
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The intellectual value of KMb
KMb has to do with keeping scholarship ‘on its toes’ –
challenging received truths, questioning dominant theory,
experimenting with new methods, bringing in fresh ideas
and perspectives
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KMb & the focus on importing knowledge
International Institute for Sustainable Development
(IISD):
“Knowledge mobilization addresses how external
knowledge (outside of the organization) is sought out
and combined with internal knowledge to create new
knowledge that meets the needs of target
users/clients….
… It recognizes that organizing one's own
intellectual capital does not necessarily lead to
innovation or change; implicit in the concept is the
need for working relationships with others.”
An example…
An expert in workplace bullying, Judy MacIntosh at UNB
is involved in research projects developed and carried out
in partnership with community practitioners, as well as
plain language websites and radio call-in shows:
o “Seeing how people respond and hearing their own stories
really gives you the sense that you can make a difference in
people’s lives. Their stories also help me confirm my own
theories. They can point to new avenues of study, and
sometimes, if you’re not on the right track, they’ll tell you
that too.”
o “And, of course, I teach. There are so many opportunities to
bring my research into classroom discussions.”
Humanities 101
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article by Margo Pfeiff in Reader’s Digest, August
2003
on UBC initiative & original Clemente initiative of
Earl Shorris
Involved “25 adults aged 20 to 62…. single
mothers, AIDS sufferers, new immigrants, exconvicts, drug addicts, homeless people…. What
they shared was an income below the poverty
line, the ability to read a newspaper and a
passion for learning—the only prerequisites for an
eight-month course called Humanities 101”
The Economic Role and Influence of the Social
Sciences and Humanities
• 2008 study by Ron Freedman at Impact Group
compared economic inputs from SSH research & STEM
research
Some findings:
• SSH-based industries account for 76% of total
employment – STEM industries account for 24%
• Industries that rely primarily on SSH inputs account for
$696.7 billion of annual GDP output
• Industries that rely primarily on STEM inputs account for
$431.4 billion of GDP
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KMb model (all in)
Impact
University
researchers
University
researchers
Research
partners,
nonacademic
researchers
Governments
NGOs
Businesses
Quality
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Making KMb make sense to the community
• SSHRC KIS project at the Queen’s University’s Monieson
Centre: brings leading academic research to business,
government, and community audiences to create value
through knowledge.
• Centre focuses on research themes related to the
knowledge economy - how to harness the expertise of
individuals, organizations and communities to create
knowledge capital....
• The result is innovation, insight and understanding to
grow business, inform policy, and revitalize industries
and communities
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KIS Discovery Workshops: Top Research Questions
1. How can our community respond to and capitalize on the emerging
creative economy?
2. What is our region’s niche/competitive edge and how can we
capitalize on it?
3. How can we engage our community in economic development?
4. How can we create value-added products from our local natural
resources (agriculture, forestry)?
5. How do we develop efficient government that builds cooperation
between local, regional, provincial and federal levels?
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6. How can we retain our youth?
7. What is the best way to foster entrepreneurship? Do
business incubators work?
8. What demographic information can guide our planning?
9. How can we effectively brand ourselves?
10. How do we compare to other similar communities and
what best practices can be learned from them?
11. What can we do to make an inventory of our region’s
assets?
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KIS Knowledge Syntheses
• 4-5 page reports summarizing leading research and
resources on key economic development issues
• topics are developed through the Discovery Workshops
• completed reports:
– Entrepreneurship
– Youth Retention
– Community Branding
– Creating a Vibrant Downtown
– Economic Development Models
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Making KMb make sense to academics
We often hear that KMb represents a lot of work that
is not counted by the university in tenure and
promotion decisions:
• some call for validation of non-peer reviewed
publications, briefings, newsletters, etc.
• some concede KMb work offers few opportunities
to publish top-tier journal articles
• some suggest only senior & tenured scholars have
the luxury or freedom to work on KMb
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Evaluation of 2004 RDI grant “Studying virtual
team effectiveness in organizations”
• the analysis highlights and traces the
advancement of key scholarly ideas:
– Virtual Teams
– Multi-communicating
– Knowledge Hiding
• it shows how scholarship and scholars connect
and combine their efforts (who works with whom,
in which ways)
• it documents the dissemination work within the
academy (journals articles, academic
meetings)….
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• … and it shows how scholarship and scholars
move out naturally into the community to
generate intellectual, social, economic and
cultural benefits:
– graduate student work with NGO on efficiency of its
virtual team work + pass along MS Project
– company executives trained in best practices from
the research
– research reports to of results to participating
organizations (100 participants)
– research on virtual work folded forward into
research on use of info technologies to reduce
carbon output in organizations
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• employment & training benefits to 17
undergraduate students, Master’s student & 5
doctoral students: library + on-line literature
searches, qualitative research, surveys,
experiments, meta-analyses, statistical analyses
• flow of research into teaching (e.g., courses in
virtual and cross-cultural team training in the
Executive Education and Masters of Global
Management programs at Queen’s; instruction of
MBA students at HEC Montreal)
• media coverage of research: interview with Globe
& Mail (to 14,000 Queen’s alumni via Web); La
Presse, Washington Post, London Times
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Parting thoughts…
• KMb is an ambitious & demanding effort to
expand scholarly inquiry beyond the traditional
boundaries of university-based research
• KMb creates a virtuous circle of reciprocal
engagement that integrates intellectual &
social impact
• KMb relies on, and invigorates, central academic
functions such as peer review & teaching
• KMb is the application of democratic principles to
generate ideas & insights that yield wealth &
well-being
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Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada
Conseil de recherches en
sciences humaines du Canada
Thank You!
Questions / Suggestions