Knowledge Mobilisation
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.
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
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?
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
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?
New 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.
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
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.
