The Co produced Pathway to Impact Describes Knowledge Mobilization Processes
Knowledge mobilization supports research collaborations between university and community partners which can maximize the impacts of research beyond the academy; however, models of knowledge mobilization are complex and create challenges for monitoring research impacts. This inability to sufficiently evaluate is particularly problematic for large collaborative research networks involving multiple partners and research institutions. The Co produced Pathway to Impact simplifies many of the complex models of knowledge mobilization. It is a logic model based framework for mapping the progress of research dissemination uptake implementation impact. This framework is illustrated using collaborative research projects from Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet) a pan Canadian community university network engaging in knowledge mobilization to promote healthy relationships among children and youth and prevent bullying. The Co produced Pathway to Impact illustrates that research impact occurs when university researchers collaborate with non academic partners who produce the products, policies, and services that have impacts on the lives of end beneficiaries. Research impact is therefore measured at the level of non academic partners and identified by surveying research partners to create narrative case studies of research impact. Knowledge mobilization helps make academic research accessible to non academic audiences and supports collaborations between academic researchers and non academic partners such as community based organizations. Knowledge mobilization is a process that supports action oriented research and finds novel approaches to persistent social, economic and environmental challenges. Knowledge mobilization has elements of: 1) university "push" of research beyond the academy; (2) community "pull" of research from the academy; 3 "knowledge exchange" between community and the academy; but extends those to include 4) the co production of research that has academic merit and also has relevance for community action (Phipps Shapson, 2009) Knowledge mobilization can thus support community engaged scholarship and community based research as well as service learning when the learning opportunity is meeting the needs of a community derived research question. There has been increasing attention paid to knowledge mobilization and related activities as the academic research community seeks to articulate and maximize the various impacts of university research beyond the academy (Donovan, 2011; Grant, 2015) Despite this increasing attention to articulating the impacts of research there is little evidence that research is creating extra academic impacts (Bhattacharyya Zwarenstein, 2009) Sandra Nutley and colleagues point out that "a central irony is the only limited extent to which evidence advocates can themselves draw on a robust evidence base to support their convictions that greater evidence use will ultimately be beneficial to public services" (Nutley, Walter, Davies, 2007, p. 271) Although it is feasible to measure the impact of a single knowledge mobilization intervention by testing indicators preand post intervention, it is challenging to evaluate a complex system of knowledge mobilization where there may be multiple research collaborators practicing a diversity of knowledge mobilization methods with diverse end users. In a recent review of leading models for knowledge mobilization such as the circular Knowledge to Action Cycle (Graham, Logan, Harrison, Straus, Tetroe, Caswell, Robinson, 2006) and the models of Bennet and Bennet (2008) Phipps, Jensen and Myers (2012) concluded that many models of knowledge mobilization are highly complex. This conclusion is not surprising because knowledge mobilization is a complex process described by Bennet and Bennet (2008) as collaborative entanglement: "Collaborative entanglement means to purposely and consistently develop and support approaches and processes that combine the sources of knowledge and the beneficiaries of that 1 Phipps et al. The Co produced Pathway to Impact Describes Knowledge Mobilizatio Published by Nighthawks Open Institutional Repository, 2016 Vol. 9, No. 1 JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SCHOLARSHIP Page 32 knowledge to interactively move toward a common direction such as meeting an identified community need" (p. 48) Knowledge Mobilization Pathway to Impact In an effort to simplify a system of knowledge mobilization that reflects movement toward a common direction of impacts we turned to a logic model (Frechtling, 2007) where activities produce outputs that in turn produce outcomes that then produce impacts (Figure 1a) By mapping such a logic model onto knowledge mobilization processes, it is possible to draw a sequence of stages that lead from research to impacts (Figure 1b) In addition, it allows for the development of metrics at each stage of the logic model. Dissemination. Knowledge mobilization supports dissemination beyond traditional academic publishing and conference presentations. This dissemination can include publishing activities such as press releases, clear language research summaries, as well as more iterative tools such as social media. It also involves active, in person methods such as research events where researchers engage actively with organizations seeking to engage with research and research expertise (Phipps, 2011) The goal of dissemination is to move research out of the academic setting and into practice and policy settings where it can progress towards impact. Uptake. Once an organization has received research information from a dissemination activity it takes that research into the organization with a goal of determining whether the research is useful for informing decisions about policy, professional practice, and/or social services. Uptake can include presentations at staff meetings (that may or may not include the original researcher) internal evaluation, as well as comparisons to the literature and existing practice. Implementation. Once the research has been taken up and passed through internal assessment, the organization may choose to use the research when developing new or improved products, policies, and services. Implementation in the knowledge mobilization context is an activity internal to the non academic partner that uses research evidence to inform organizational decisions. Impact. Impact is the effect the research informed products, policies, and services have on end users as measured by the non academic organization. It is measured not only in metrics of utilization but also by changes in the lives of citizens, the health of the environment, or animal welfare, depending on the ultimate end user the organization is seeking to address. This model as illustrated in Figure 1b creates a pathway to impact that enables the monitoring of progress. By understanding the goals of each stage of the pathway to impact, it is possible to assess the benefits accruing along the pathway; however, the linearity of this model may be a limitation. Linear models of research use have long been abandoned in favour of more iterative models of research use that show sustained engagement between researchers and non academic partner organizations (Nutley, Walter, Davies, 2007; Greenhalgh Wieringa, 2011) Linear models create risks that research evidence merely "transferred" to end user organizations may be misinterpreted or misused. Linear models create challenges of attribution which is the extent to which impacts can be attributed to the use of specific research outputs (Boaz, Fitzpatrick, Shaw, 2008) By requiring a moment of transfer from the academic to the non academic setting, linear models also reinforce academic and non academic silos. Figure 1a. Traditional Knowledge Mobilization Logic Model Figure 1b. Knowledge and Mobilization Logic Model Traditional Knowledge mobilization logic model Activity Output Outcome Impact Knowledge mobilization logic model Research Dissemination Implementation Uptake Impact 2 Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, Vol. 9, Iss. 1 [2016] Art. 5 https:/digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol9/iss1/5 Vol. 9, No. 1 JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AND SCHOLARSHIP Page 33 Knowledge Mobilization Co produced Pathway to Impact Academic research networks are expected to collaborate with non academic partner organizations to make new discoveries and transform those discoveries into impacts. This requires a more iterative version of the pathway to impact than is shown in Figure 1b because this process requires collaboration and co production at each stage of the pathway. A circular or iterative logic model has previously been recommended for evaluating knowledge translation (Davison, 2009) such as the Knowledge to Action Cycle (Graham et al. 2006) and a cyclical model proposed for education research (Amo, 2007) The iterative aspects of circular and cyclical models can be embedded into the knowledge mobilization logic model of Figure 1b to produce a Co produced Pathway to Impact, as illustrated in Figure 2. The Co produced Pathway to Impact maintains collaboration throughout the process and creates an iterative relationship between the non academic partners and academic researchers, while maintaining an overall progression from research development to ultimate impact. As illustrated in Figure 2 there are domains where academic research and policy/practice activities remain distinct; however, the central overlapping space is a shared space of collaboration where co production occurs at each stage of the pathway. Co production occurs at each stage of the pathway and accelerates the impact of research. For example, co production at the research stage ensures partners' readiness to take up findings because of their input on the nature of the research questions, methods, and interpretations. Co production in the research stage enhances partners' mot