Knowledge Mobilization

Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) (or Knowledge Translation (KT)) is at the interface of researchers and those outside of research who will be interested in it or impacted by it one way or another – such as clinicians, patients, government, industry and society as a whole. BrainsCAN is committed to KMb at every stage of the program, becoming a beacon of KMb practice over time. It will enable and strengthen the two-way dialogue between researchers and the stakeholders of their research so that each is informed by the other. That ongoing shared dialogue is imperative if research and society are to genuinely collaborate and if society is to ultimately benefit in the most fundamental way from the research that it is funding.

BrainsCAN is a KMb-oriented initiative where uptake and use of knowledge is a fundamental priority throughout every stage of the research it enables. A clear KMb focus from the beginning of a research project will enable that project to establish early on which stakeholders will be interested in or affected by it.

We can facilitate community engagement, assist with industry partnerships and relationships, and support the planning and implementation of KMb within research projects. We can also help you to consider the potential value of IP that you might generate through your work and how to achieve positive societal impact from your research.

Impact

Impact is the demonstrable contribution that excellent research makes to society and the economy. Measuring impact is necessary if one is to really understand the return on the investment in a research program such as BrainsCAN. Tri-council and other funding bodies increasingly include requirements to identify the impact that the research they funded has had on academia and society, the benefit that the research brings to end users and the involvement they have had in the research process. They also require a defined implementation strategy so that together, a grant application will consider both the impact anticipated and the implementation plan to achieve it.

By considering impact in this way, BrainsCAN can assess the nature, scale and beneficiaries of the research and use that knowledge to underpin the quality of future research funding proposals and research outcomes.

Explore the resources available on the Resources page.

For questions related to KMb and Impact at BrainsCAN, please email brainscan@uwo.ca