UPEN is excited to share the next steps for our community of practice (CoP) on knowledge mobilisation.
The knowledge mobilisation CoP was set up to explore what works in knowledge mobilisation and understand its impact on the use of academic evidence by policy organisations.
CoP members – a large and diverse group from universities, local and national government, think tanks, the third sector and beyond – have co-created the CoP agenda. It aims to enable us all to progress knowledge mobilisation both individually and at a system level, and build relationships to support what can be a lonely and challenging role.
What’s next for the CoP?
We ran two initial agenda-shaping sessions with CoP members in November 2025 and March 2026. What’s needed now, as one member put it, is to ‘dig in and do the work’. Identifying the direction to take and the activities we need has involved an extensive, often complex exploratory process, searching for needles of focus in the big and messy haystacks of knowledge mobilisation.
We identified six, cross-cutting priorities, outlined below, along with many ideas for how to explore them. Huge thanks to everyone who bore with and contributed to this planning process – it will allow us to now ‘dig in’ together with smaller sessions focusing on specific, member-generated priorities.
What are the member-generated priority areas?
The following six categories aim to capture key, recurring themes raised by CoP members during the November 2025 CoP launch. While the categories may change as the CoP evolves and members’ priorities change, they give a sense of the broad focus areas:
- Exploring good knowledge mobilisation practice and ‘what works’ in context, identifying practice examples, case studies, resources and evidence, and detailing how these played out in the ‘real world’
- Increasing the reach and impact of knowledge mobilisation work through innovative methods, or understanding the specific or novel approaches to achieving ‘what works’
- Capturing and communicating the impact of knowledge mobilisation work, in different contexts and to different audiences
- Determining what to work on by identifying evidence needs or topics useful to policy and practice in interactive ways, including and beyond Areas of Research Interest
- Understanding and connecting across different research, policy and practice communities
- Raising the profile of knowledge mobilisation work by improving awareness, understanding, career pathways, incentives and funding
Our agenda aims to enable us all to progress knowledge mobilisation both individually and at a system level, and build relationships to support what can be a lonely and challenging role.
How will we explore these priority areas?
Following input from CoP members, we are planning a project-based approach to accommodate smaller, more focused sessions. This will give us more time and opportunities to connect with and learn from one another. It will also allow for the work of the CoP to align with and complement the activities running in UPEN’s focus on People and Place.
Our agenda aims to enable us all to progress knowledge mobilisation both individually and at a system level, and build relationships to support what can be a lonely and challenging role.
Rather than running discrete, ‘one-off’ sessions on each theme, the priority areas will be explored via two longer term projects, running in parallel and reflecting the core aims of the CoP. Below is a brief overview of what each project might involve, and how they will cover the six cross-cutting priorities above. Both projects will draw on existing resources, research, innovative practice and CoP members’ experiences.
- Exploring and embedding ‘what works’ in real-world knowledge mobilisation practice by:
- exploring key characteristics of effective knowledge mobilisation practice
- identifying and trying out specific methods for achieving what works
This will cover priority areas like determining what to work on; increasing the impact and reach of knowledge mobilisation work; and understanding and connections across different research, policy and practice communities.
- Understanding, capturing and communicating knowledge mobilisation impacts by:
- exploring ways of identifying and describing knowledge mobilisation impact in different contexts
- identifying and trying out specific methods for capturing or evidencing knowledge mobilisation impacts and communicating these to different audiences
This will cover priority areas like raising the profile of knowledge mobilisation work, as well as capturing and communicating its impacts.
A diverse range of activities, including learning walks, lightning talks, buddy systems and field trips, will enable members to dip in and out of projects depending on individual interests, goals and capacity. Meanwhile, the two overarching projects aim to build continuity, contributing to longer-term learning and relationships, and sustaining the cross-sector interactions that will be key to the strength of this CoP. This will help us develop the connections, shared learning and resources that are key for increasing and communicating knowledge mobilisation impacts.
How can you get involved?
Over the coming months we will be working on bringing together plans for these parallel projects with a view to running sessions from autumn 2026. So far, members have contributed many ideas, resources, offers to input on specific themes, and suggestions of others who might be well placed to add their expertise. Please do email alison.clarke@wcpp.org.uk if you have anything you’d like to add.
In the meantime, if you are attending the UPEN conference, we’d like to welcome you to an informal, lunchtime drop in on day one, where anyone involved or interested in the CoP can come and meet others.
For those not at the conference, don’t worry! This will be one of many opportunities as we ‘dig in and do the work’ of this CoP together over the coming years.
Related resources
Tackling Enduring Policy Challenges: Lessons from a collaborative new approach
