Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer
Research Project 2. Applying Knowledge Value Mapping to Facilitate Knowledge Translation Through National Organizations
Project Directors are increasingly tasked with demonstrating evidence that the outputs from their technology-oriented research activities (e.g., conceptual discoveries) and/or development activities (e.g., prototype inventions) are being used by others. These others fall into six groups we call Stakeholders: Researchers, Clinicians, Consumers, Manufacturers, Consumers, Policy Makers and Brokers (e.g., employers, educators, attorneys).
There are three aspects to demonstrating evidence of project knowledge output use by Stakeholders:
- Innovation – Are the knowledge outputs worthy of use by others? We define innovations as having three qualities: Novelty, Feasibility & Utility. All three qualities must be present and apparent in the knowledge output. This study reviewed project outputs to identify and select those demonstrating the qualities of innovation, for incorporation into project Research Project 3. Comparative Intervention Studies.
- Communication – The project knowledge outputs must be disseminated to Stakeholders with potential interest. Although scholars reach their peers through conference presentations as well as publications, these venues do not reach all Stakeholder groups or the entire potential audience in each one. Research Project 2 focuses on an option for efficiently and effectively achieving the required communication to Stakeholders.
- Documentation – Once the project knowledge output is communicated, what is the evidence of Stakeholder comprehension – awareness of or interest in the output – or Stakeholder action – behaviors of knowledge use? This measurement of knowledge use is also being addressed in project Research Project 3. Comparative Intervention Studies.
Research Project 2 recognizes that scholars lack the incentives to widely promote their findings, while funding awards lack sufficient funds to hire staff dedicated to this purpose. Here we propose and explore a middle ground, where National Organizations representing Stakeholders relevant to the study are recruited to serve as conduits for communicating the knowledge outputs to their members.
A full description of the first study conducted on this strategy was published in the open access journal Implementation Science as: Lane, J & Rogers, J. Engaging National Organizations in Knowledge Translation: Comparative Case Studies in Knowledge Value. Implementation Science 2011, 6, accepted.
A summary of the findings was published as a Focus Brief, Facilitating Technology-Based Knowledge Utilization,
accessible at: http://www.ncddr.org/kt/products/focus/focus26/
