professor huw davies

DirectorKnowledge Mobilisation & Capacity

Building

From Knowledge Transfer to Knowledge Exchange - changing models of research use and impact

Professor Huw Davies

“Yes, it’s quite a noise – but are we having any impact?”

The challenge for all of us in the knowledge business…

What do we mean by

research, evidence and knowledge?

Understanding the

complexities of knowledge

creation and use.

Implications for facilitating better use.

CEO

First generation modelling - Linear Models (1960s-mid 90s)

LANGUAGE KEY ASSUMPTIONS

• Research use

• Dissemination

• Diffusion

• Knowledge

transfer

• Knowledge uptake

• Implementation

• Knowledge is a product of

research

• Knowledge is generalisable

across

contexts

• Key process is handoff from

researchers to users

• “Uptake” is a function of

effective

packaging and appropriate

channels

From Knowing to DoingTraditional linear model – assumes rather

uncomplicated relationships between research/knowledge and knowledge/action

Knowledge Creation

Knowledge

validation

Knowledge Disseminatio

n

Knowledge

adoption

Researchers

Users

‘KT’

--- THE PROBLEM WITH THIS MODEL ---Too - simple, rational, linear, uni-directional, individualised, unproblematised, asocial, and

acontextual (otherwise, OK…)

Research priorities

How do we KNOW stuff? biomolecular sciences

clinical epidemiology

some health services research…

some organisations research…

…much health services research

…much organisations research

patient & user experience

case studies, ethnographies

C O

N T

E X

T

Varieties of research

Harder, quantitative, facts-based, explanatory…

Softer, qualitative, exploratory, more meaning-oriented…

Knowledge required for effective policy is much broader than simply “what works”

• Know-about (problems): e.g. the nature, formation, natural history and interrelations of health and social problems in context…

• Know-why: explaining the relationship between values and policy/practice…

• Know-how (to put into practice): e.g. pragmatic knowledge about serviceand programme implementation…

• Know-who (to involve): e.g. service team composition; building alliances for action…

Enlightenment knowledge: problematising, re-framing…Methodological pluralism: contentiousnessEngagement with values: politics & negotiation

Research ➮ Evidence ➮ Knowledge - very uncertain process; engages with values, existing (tacit) knowledge, and experience…

- socially, politically and contextually situated…

- not necessarily convergent/shared…

- may require some difficult ‘unlearning’.

Challenge of “knowledge”

And, not just what knowledge/evidence, but crucially, whose knowledge/evidence?

- ‘evidence’ may be used selectively/tactically

- knowledge/power intimately co-constructed

Second generation: Relationship Models (late 90s-)

LANGUAGE KEY ASSUMPTIONS

• Knowledge

exchange

• Knowledge

brokerage

• Boundary

spanners

• Research impact

• Knowledge from multiple sources –

research, theory and practice;

• Key process is interpersonal,

involving

social relationships;

• Networks of producers and

consumers

• Collaboration through the

production-

synthesis-integration cycle;

• Knowledge is context-linked - must

be

adapted prior to adoption;

• Degree of use is a function of

effective

relationships and inter-linking

processes.

Another take: Mode I or Mode II?

MODE I

• Focus is knowledge

generation

• Learn from outside

• Knowledge created elsewhere

by experts

• Clear methodological

standards & hierarchies

MODE II

• Focus is problem-solving

• Learn by doing in situ

• Knowledge is co-created and

context dependent

• Flexible methods &

contingent application

“Use” is Complex, Social & Situated

• The importance of context, networks & systems;

• Social and collective learning, and unlearning;• Interaction with other types of knowledge (tacit;

experiential; political awareness);• ‘Use’ as an adaptive process - not an event;• Non-individualised embedded uses of research;• Inherent non-linearity of systems.

…moving us away from ideas of research as “answers”;

… problematising “knowledge transfer”;

Emphasising “situated knowledge interaction”, recognising:

Third generation: Systems Models

LANGUAGE KEY ASSUMPTIONS

•Knowledge translation

•Knowledge interaction

•Knowledge integration

•Knowledge mobilization

•Knowledge intermediation

•Knowledge cycle is tightly woven within local priorities, culture and context;

•Explicit and tacit knowledge need to be integrated to inform decision making;

•Relationships mediate throughout the cycle, and must be understood from a systems perspective - in the context of the organization and its strategic processes (complex adaptive systems);

•Knowledge application is a function of the effective integration of organisations and wider systems (managed knowledge flows).

From ‘bridging’ to dialogue,

from knowledge transfer to knowledge exchange,knowledge interaction, & knowledge mobilisation