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When designing your research, you need to plan how to share it with the people who can use it to effect change. This is known as knowledge mobilisation.
For those interested in Global Health Research, see our planning for impact page.
Knowledge mobilisation strategies can help researchers share their research with the people who can use it. It is about sharing knowledge between different communities to create new knowledge to catalyse change. Knowledge mobilisation strategies should be integrated throughout your research programme.
Knowledge creation is seen as a process not a product.
It’s also known as knowledge translation, knowledge exchange or knowledge transfer.
Dissemination is a one-way process where research findings are provided to specific audiences using targeted channels and planned strategies
Knowledge mobilisation is more than dissemination. It involves a two-way dialogue between researchers and research users so that knowledge can be shared to create new knowledge to catalyse change.
Impact describes the contribution of research to the real world.
It is the difference research makes and is the intended outcome of knowledge mobilisation and dissemination.
The term “pathway to impact” refers to planning for impact using the processes of knowledge mobilisation and dissemination.
The research process can take a long time, and when the findings are published they might not be shared with the right people.
Even when research evidence is available, it does not always reach the people who need it such as members of the public, policy makers and health and care professionals.
This can impact the outcomes of people receiving health and care services.
Some research suggests that:
Making plans for knowledge mobilisation will ensure your research reaches the people who can improve practice and services.
Researchers who apply for funding from NIHR research programmes are expected to include an engagement and impact plan in their application.
You should consider your knowledge mobilisation strategies at the beginning of a research programme.
The people who will use your research or ‘evidence users’ have a key role to play in:
Consider 3 things to maximise the potential impact of your research at any stage in a research project:
Prioritise stakeholders to focus your time, energy and resources.
Start by asking yourself:
You can then map out the people and groups you’ve identified on a stakeholder grid plotting interest against influence.
The stakeholders who are high interest and high influence should be your priority, but remember that both interest and influence can change over time. Changes are usually a result of the next thing you should consider, context.
Contextual influences are the wider factors that might affect your stakeholders and how they interact with your research. These can be:
They might not all be appropriate to your project, and they might change as your project progresses, but it can be worth thinking about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats presented by each factor.
According to Dr Jenni Lynch, Reader in Social Care, Technology & Knowledge Mobilisation:
“For knowledge mobilisation to work well you want to be a trusted part of the conversation, you want to be helping colleagues to think through the challenges and opportunities”
From your stakeholder mapping you can see the people you’re trying to reach. For each group, consider whether you can reach them:
When communicating with your stakeholders, think about what’s important to your audience and start with that first.
This is usually the implications of your research, rather than information on the background or methods.
You also want to consider which communication method will work best for your audience. Examples include social media, events, briefing papers, conversations. Different audiences will need different approaches.
You need to think about how you:
What are the pros and cons of different creative communication techniques? Learn more in this blog on NIHR Evidence: Creative communication tools can bring research findings to a wider audience
Researchers and research funders are striving to make research findings available to everyone. So, how can we do this well? Find out in this blog: Getting the message across: how can we share our research with everyone?
Take a look at this infographic, which sets out some of the key things to consider when communicating your research to patients and the public: 10 recommendations for communicating research to patients and the public
Using a knowledge mobilisation framework, theory or model will help you plan your knowledge mobilisation strategy systematically and think about the factors that may influence this, the processes or mechanism of how it may work and your intended outcomes.
You can browse some introductory resources on knowledge mobilisation, these set out some of the theories, models or frameworks of knowledge mobilisation that you can use in your research.
You can learn more about knowledge mobilisation in our webinars:
Guidance on costing for knowledge mobilisation activities.
Before you start your funding application, take a look at the 5 most common mistakes made by researchers planning for impact and knowledge mobilisation.
Use the Impact Toolkit on NIHR Learn Open to access a range of tools and resources to support research impact planning, delivery and assessment. This complements our our impact e-learning course.
Some other toolkits that might be helpful include:
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