Designing for impact in transdisciplinary research

February 16, 2017March 1, 2017 Community Member Concepts Author - Cynthia Mitchell, Author - Dana Cordell, Author - Dena Fam, Change, Mutual learning, Research impact, Transdisciplinarity

Community member post by Cynthia Mitchell, Dena Fam and Dana Cordell

Starting with richly articulated pictures of where we would like to be at some defined point in the future has powerful consequences for any human endeavour. How can we use such “Outcome Spaces” to guide the conception, design, implementation, and evaluation of transdisciplinary research?

Our Outcome Spaces Framework (Mitchell et al., 2017) considers three essential impacts:

(1) improving the situation,
(2) generating relevant stocks and flows of knowledge, and
(3) mutual and transformational learning by the researcher/s and involved participants. Continue reading →

Whose side are we on and for whom do we write?

February 14, 2017March 23, 2017 Community Member Concepts Accountability, Author - Jon Warren, Author - Kayleigh Garthwaite, Commodification, Evaluation, Integrity, Research impact

Community member post by Jon Warren and Kayleigh Garthwaite

In 1967 Howard Becker posed the question – to academics – “Whose side are we on?”.

Becker was discussing the question during the time of civil rights, the Vietnam war and widespread social change in the US. He sparked a debate about objectivity and value neutrality which had long featured as part of the social sciences’ methodological foundations and which has implications beyond the social sciences for all academics.

garthwaite — Kayleigh Garthwaite (biography)

What relevance do these ideas have now, in an era when academics and their research are becoming increasingly commodified? Academics are increasingly pressured by their own institutions and fellow professionals to gain more funding, publish more papers and make more impact. Questions of social justice and professional integrity are at risk of being swamped by these forces allied to unscrupulous careerism.

We argue that the question now is not only who academics serve but also who we write for. Continue reading →

Pro-active learning to improve interdisciplinary processes

January 3, 2017January 10, 2017 Community Member Processes Author - Laura Meagher, Best practice, Evaluation, Interdisciplinarity, Leadership, Mutual learning, Professional development, Research impact

Community member post by Laura R. Meagher

Member of Board of Governors — Laura R. Meagher (biography)

I am a firm believer in looking at interdisciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange – or impact generation – as processes. If you can see something as a process, you can learn about it. If you can learn about it, you can do it better!

I find that this approach helps people to feel enfranchised, to believe that it is possible for them to open up what might have seemed to be a static black box and achieve understanding of the dynamics of how nouns like ‘interdisciplinarity’ or ‘knowledge exchange’ or ‘research impact’ can actually come to be. Continue reading →

Four simple questions for navigating the knowledge mobilisation swamp

December 6, 2016December 13, 2016 Community Member Methods Author - Vicky Ward, Knowledge mobilisation, Research impact, Research implementation

Community member post by Vicky Ward

How can knowledge mobilisers – people who move knowledge into action – make sense of diverse definitions, navigate through the fragmented literature and better describe their work? It all starts with a few simple questions…

Over the past 15-20 years, research and practical activity focusing on how knowledge can be better shared and used has grown at what sometimes seems like an alarming rate. For many, the diverse range of literature, terminology, models and tools can seem overwhelming and bewildering. In 2010, for example, McKibbon and colleagues identified 100 different terms used to describe the activities and processes involved in linking knowledge and practice (McKibbon et al., 2010). And in 2014 Huw Davies and colleagues found 71 substantial reviews of research literature on this topic across health, social care and education (Davies et al., 2015). Continue reading →

Advocate or Honest Broker?

November 22, 2016March 17, 2017 Community Member Concepts Advocacy, Author - John Callewaert, Author - Patricia Gober, Author – Gabriele Bammer, Honest broker, Research impact, Research implementation

Community member post by Gabriele Bammer

To mark the first anniversary of the Integration and Implementation Insights blog, we launch an occasional series of “synthesis blog posts” drawing insights across blog posts on related topics.

What is our social obligation as researchers to see our findings implemented? And how should we do it? When is it appropriate to advocate loudly to drive change? When should we focus on informing decision makers, stepping back ourselves from direct action? How can we know that our research is ‘good enough’ to act on and not compromised by our own values, interests, cognitive biases and blind spots? Continue reading →

Six lessons about change that affect research impact

October 18, 2016March 17, 2017 Community Member Concepts Author – Gabriele Bammer, Change, Complexity, Context, Evaluation, Participation, Research impact, Research implementation, Unintended consequences

Community member post by Gabriele Bammer

What do researchers need to know about change to help our research have greater impact? What kind of impact is it realistic to expect? Will understanding change improve the ways we assess research impact?

The six lessons described here illustrate some of the complexities inherent in understanding and trying to influence change.

#1. Research findings enter a dynamic environment, where everything is changing all the time

As researchers we often operate as if the world is static, just waiting for our findings in order to decide where to head next. Instead, for research to have impact, researchers must negotiate a constantly changing environment. Continue reading →

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