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From Research to Reality: Mobilising Knowledge for Impact
From Research to Reality: Mobilising Knowledge for Impact
Knowledge Mobilisation is a fundamental way of working for NIHR ARC NWL; it is embedded throughout our work and is essential to ensuring our research has maximum impact.
Knowledge Mobilisation is a fundamental way of working for NIHR ARC NWL; it is embedded throughout our work and is essential to ensuring our research has maximum impact.
What is Knowledge Mobilisation?
What is Knowledge Mobilisation?
As the name suggests, it is about transferring knowledge from where it was generated to the context where it can deliver the most impact. It is an active process and can be integrated into every stage of the research process. However, many researchers struggle to do this effectively, which can become a barrier to achieving the full benefits of research.
Research suggests that:
as little as 14% of findings from clinical trials become standard of care
up to 40% of patients don't get treated using the best evidence
The NIHR definition of Knowledge mobilisation:
The process that paves the way to impact via active collaboration with key stakeholders throughout your research. This includes working with the people and organisations who will use or benefit from research (knowledge users). Together, stakeholders share and integrate their knowledge. This creates new insights and understanding about your research plans and findings. The ultimate aim is to change practice and policy and have a real-world impact.
Source: https://www.nihr.ac.uk/research-funding/application-support/plan-knowledge-mobilisation
A national priority
A national priority
We have benefitted from a share of £7.8million NIHR funding for the Applied Research Collaborations to improve the Knowledge Mobilisation of applied health and care findings. The three-year initiative aims to reduce the time it takes to roll out effective interventions, policies and models of care to address high-priority national and regional challenges and maximise the impact of research.
Why is Knowledge Mobilisation important?
Why is Knowledge Mobilisation important?
Although it is often described as ‘the pathway to impact’, Knowledge Mobilisation is frequently misunderstood and resource is rarely prioritised for it. Without a practical and systematic approach to getting knowledge into the context where it can add the maximum value, the research can remain isolated from health and care practice.
Knowledge Mobilisation is a strategic priority here at NIHR ARC NWL. We are partnering with the University of West London and organisations in our region to build capacity in Knowledge Mobilisation with embedded Fellows. We are targeting areas that have the greatest impact on service delivery and patient outcomes. We will develop local stakeholder collaborations, including with the Integrated Care System, local authorities, and voluntary organisations.
Maximising impact
Maximising impact
Our approach combines understanding and communicating the robust evidence base, theoretical frameworks and facilitating responsive implementation through training and mentoring support
We will consider the ‘three Cs’ to ensure the maximum impact of research throughout the duration of the project and beyond:
Communities: Who are the people that are going to use your research?
Context: What are the systems, locations, and environments that will affect how research awareness is raised and interest generated?
Communications: What tools can you deploy to share your research in a systematic and targeted way?
Meet the Knowledge Mobilisation Team
Meet the Knowledge Mobilisation Team
Dr Ben Holden
Ben is one of the Co-Leads for our Knowledge Mobilisation programme. He is also a Consultant in Public Health with experience as a clinician on the frontline in the NHS, leading academic research programmes, and putting evidence-based public health policy into practice.
Following several years working in local and national government, he is now Consultant in Public Health at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Northwest London. Ben’s research focuses on how health and care organisations can advance health equity and improve overall population health.
For Ben, knowledge mobilisation is a two-way process that creates and shares research (knowledge) in ways that are meaningful for policymakers, practitioners, and communities (knowledge users). Ben explains that “when researchers and knowledge users listen to each other to develop and deliver research relevant to users needs, there is a greater chance of real-world impact on patients, practitioners and communities.”
Prof. Rowan Myron
Prof. Rowan Myron
Rowan is the current Education Lead and the Knowledge Mobilisation Co -Lead, working one day a week for NIHR ARC Northwest London and four days as Professor of Healthcare Improvement at the University of West London. She is a trained psychologist and completed her PhD in Child Development at Goldsmiths College, London.
Rowan developed and continues to teach on the MSc Leading and Improving Health and Social Care, and Professional Doctorate in Health courses, using the ARC systematic approach. As the Education Lead, she directs the NIHR ARC Northwest London Improvement Leader Fellowship programme, building capacity in improvement science and supporting individuals to implement change in their workplace. She mentors nationally for the NIHR and regionally for the ARC NWL. As Knowledge Mobilisation co-lead with Dr Ben Holden, she supports our Knowledge Mobilisation Fellows to translate knowledge into practice, building capacity in knowledge mobilisation skills. She is also leading research exploring the impact of Quality Improvement learning and teaching within the fellowship.
Knowledge Mobilisation Fellows
Knowledge Mobilisation Fellows
As part of our commitment to knowledge mobilisation, we are offering four new Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow posts in partnership with the University of West London.
Our ‘KM Fellows’ will be practitioners embedded in partner organisations driving responsive implementation to support our frontline health and care colleagues. Working with our research themes, we will build capacity in knowledge mobilisation skills across our academic and clinical colleagues. We will prioritise the implementation of research-informed interventions, specifically in areas with gaps between current practice and best evidence. This will ensure health and care investments are directly aligned with population needs, contributing to efficient and effective service delivery and improved outcomes for local people.
Building on our experience in capacity building for implementation, we will assess the impact of our knowledge mobilisation programme by monitoring the uptake of training and deployment of interventions, analysis tools and methods. This will be supported by theme-specific evaluations of specific work plans designed to scale up and spread generalisable learning across the country.
Dr Sophie McFarland RD
Dr Sophie McFarland RD
Primary Care Dietitian Lead, Research Mobilisation Lead and Multi-Professional Education Lead
Dr Sophie McFarland is a registered dietitian with extensive experience across acute, community, and primary care settings across a range of clinical specialties. Her clinical expertise is complemented by a mixed methods PhD focusing on the nutritional management of chronic diseases and the potential of digital health care. This academic background has fuelled her passion for bridging the knowledge mobilisation gap, aiming to translate robust evidence into scalable, real-world improvements in healthcare delivery.
Sophie now works for Healthcare Central London GP Federation as Primary Care Dietitian Lead and Research Mobilisation Lead, overseeing clinical dietetic provision and proactive research, identifying areas for improvement.
As a Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow, her area of interest is women's health, particularly Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS). She aims to understand patient and clinician’s perspectives to align best-practice evidence with clinical delivery, and improve care quality.
Craig Holden
Craig Holden
Senior Lead Public Health Team
Craig has lived and worked in West London for the last ten years as a local authority commissioner, focusing on social care, children and young people and, most recently, public health. He is currently a Senior Lead in Hammersmith & Fulham Council's Public Health Team.
Early in his career Craig moved from a psychology role in the UK to work for seven years as a community social worker in Brooklyn, New York. Having held a Masters in Social Work, he then sought to take on a more systemic focus by completing a PhD in Social Welfare at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. This led to a number of health and social sector opportunities including working for three years as Project Evaluator for a coalition-based, Center for Disease Control-funded infant mortality reduction initiative; and two years as Urban Health Policy Fellow for the New York State Senate.
Craig has consistently drawn on these rich experiences to help him more effectively engage with and support stakeholders across health and social care settings. He is firmly of the belief that knowledge mobilisation is at its most effective, and most sustainable, when the process is led and informed by the subject matter experts themselves. Currently Craig is working to foster this practice across a range of health, public health, and social service settings. His PhD dissertation focuses on the relationship between stressors, social support and wellbeing in the lives of spouse dementia caregivers.
Julie Derwig
Julie Derwig
Assistant Psychologist
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
✉️ julie.derwig@nhs.net / derwjul@uwl.ac.uk
Julie is an Assistant Psychologist in Clinical Health Psychology at St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, where she has worked since 2020. She provides one-to-one and group-based psychological interventions to patients with long-term health conditions, many of whom are older adults, from ethnic minority backgrounds, and have complex psychosocial needs. She also provides psychological support to ICU and A&E staff across Imperial hospitals. Her role involves evaluating intervention outcomes and conducting service improvement projects to enhance patient-centred care.
Julie has a diverse research background, with experience in projects exploring mental health and well-being, particularly social connectedness, in people with long-term health conditions, the public health response to the Grenfell fire, and the application of AI in healthcare. Prior to her work in psychology, she qualified and practised as a solicitor in private practice.
In November 2025, Julie will begin the Doctorate in Health Psychology. She recently became a Knowledge Mobilisation (KM) Fellow with NIHR ARC Northwest London and will be working with multidisciplinary teams and patients with long-term health conditions to bridge the gap between research and practice, supporting meaningful change in healthcare. Julie sees knowledge mobilisation as essential to improving patient outcomes by ensuring that the right knowledge is accessible, actionable, and applied in a sustainable way where it can have the greatest impact.
Lauren Trepte
Lauren Trepte
Clinical Trials Team Leader for Women's Health Research
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Lauren is a Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow based at University of West London. She is also a senior Midwife at Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust, where she leads the Women’s Health Research Team at the West Middlesex Hospital site. Since qualifying as a Midwife in 2015, Lauren has worked across diverse areas including midwifery, sexual health, fertility, and clinical research.
She recently completed a Master of Research in Women’s Health and Reproductive Science at University College London. Her dissertation explored the acceptability of virtual reality headsets for women undergoing pregnancy loss procedures in outpatient settings—an innovative area reflecting her commitment to improving patient experience through technology.
Lauren is deeply passionate about enhancing women's access to care and advancing health literacy. In her current role as a Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow she is focused on embedding digital solutions to support women’s understanding of healthcare systems and reproductive health options. These tools will be co-designed in collaboration with local women’s groups, patient and public involvement (PPI) groups, and women’s health clinicians to ensure they are accessible, meaningful, and tailored to the needs of both patients and care providers.
Quality Improvement Network
Quality Improvement Network
Care | Share | Learn
Building on 15 years of successfully delivering the Improvement Leader Fellowship, the Quality Improvement Network (or QIN for short) is a new supportive community for like minded health and care 'improvers.
We now offer a diversified portfolio of learning opportunities to enable more people to engage with capacity building in a way that fits their needs and availability.
The Network meets monthly to share relevant learning and to widen access to quality improvement learning there are flexible training opportunities available in a ‘modular’ format.
Find out more about the Quality Improvement Network.
Knowledge Mobilisation News
Knowledge Mobilisation News
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