Another successful #KMbChat on Twitter this month! Each second-last Thursday of the month, knowledge mobilizers, knowledge brokers, knowledge workers and anyone else interested are invited to tweet together (12pm EST) to discuss a variety of topics about knowledge mobilization (KMb). I have had the privilege of moderating two of these KMb Tweet Chats and have never been disappointed with the response, the knowledge exchanged and the great ideas generated.
The topic for this month’s KMbChat (known as #KMbChat on Twitter) was about International Knowledge Mobilization and focused on best practices of KMb from around the world. Starting the conversation I asked “What are your top examples of KMb from the following global regions? United States; Europe; Africa; Australia; South America; Asia/Southeast Asia
And why?
Although most of the participants were from Canada and the United States, our tweeting group of KMbers appeared to be well informed about some of the outstanding knowledge mobilization efforts taking place in other countries:
Spain
We were fortunate to have @slagosky joining us from Spain who started us off by mentioning that Fundación para la eSalud – FeSalud or The Foundation for E-Health (@FeSalud on Twitter) is a non-profit organization that engages in technological methods of KMb with private and public organizations, mostly related to e-health and developing technology.
Soon the KMbChat generated some great examples of effective KMb work being done in a variety of places in the world:
The United States
Research into Action is an example of a Knowledge Translation program from the United States hosted in the School of Public Health at the University Texas (@KTExchange on Twitter)
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is a US based organization (which also has a presence in Canada) and is an important player in Community Based Research (@ccph2010 on Twitter)
The United Kingdom
The important KMb work of Sarah Morton and colleagues from the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships based at the University of Edinburgh
The important work of Angie Hart and colleagues from the Community University Partnership Programme at the University of Brighton
The Beacons for Public Engagement are university-based collaborative centres set up in 2008 to support, recognize, reward and build capacity for public engagement
Another great UK resource for KMb is the London School of Economics Impact of Social Sciences blog
European Union
The Science Shop Model – a European Union initiative – is part of The Living Knowledge Network
Canada
The EU Science Shop Model is also practiced by the University of Guelph at the Institute for Community Engaged Scholarship
Australia
Telethon Institute for Child Health Researchwas among the first to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to major health issues: clinical research, laboratory sciences and epidemiologists all under the one roof, to tackle complex diseases and issues in a number of ways
Social Innovation Exchange Australia is a non-profit company formed to find better ways of tackling social problems, and responding to growing community needs and opportunities
South Pacific
Pacific Institute of Public Policy located in Vanuatu is a leading independent think tank serving the Pacific islands community. For info on a KMb panel with @pacificpolicy @CIPPEC and @MwananchiGhana see this MobilizeThis! blog
International
The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilitieshas a global focus and is the first and only world-wide group dedicated to the scientific study of intellectual disability while also keeping knowledge mobilization front and centre
South America
Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) is a non-profit organization that seeks to create a more efficient, just and democratic State that improves the quality of life
Africa
Development Research Uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa (DRUSSA)is a network of 24 universities that focuses on evidence-based policy making that aims to improve the accessibility, uptake and utilization of locally contextualized development research evidence on climate change and environment, health, information, education, governance, food security, livelihoods for children, women and men in Africa, to inform Sub-Saharan and global development policy and practice
Evaluation of a knowledge transfer strategy from a user fee exemption program for vulnerable populations in Burkina Faso is a research paper (although from researchers at the Université de Montréal in Canada) that analyzes one example of a knowledge transfer strategy aimed at improving the use of research results that could help reduce the vulnerability of certain populations in Africa
One of our KMbChat participants @abbaspeaks pointed out that language is often a barrier to effective knowledge exchange/mobilization, which sparked some great conversation about overcoming KMb language barriers as a challenge to connect us internationally. This included using technology such as diagrams and images along with internet translation programs that can assist us with international knowledge mobilization. There was also great discussion about the possibility of creating an undergraduate or graduate course about International Knowledge Mobilization.
All in all it was another informative hour of bringing people together to tweet about KMb! You can link here for further analytics about the KMbChat.
Do you know of any knowledge mobilization projects from across the globe? Please let us know.
Hope to tweet up with you as we invite you to join us for our next #KMbChat on Twitter Thursday June 27th at 12 noon EST moderated by @abbaspeaks.
