UPEN invites colleagues from universities, policy organisations and beyond, to join a new Community of Practice on knowledge mobilisation in academic-policy engagement.
UPEN is pleased to invite colleagues from universities, policy organisations and beyond, to join a new Community of Practice on knowledge mobilisation in academic-policy engagement. The Community of Practice will focus on exploring approaches towards knowledge mobilisation and understanding its impact on the use of academic evidence by policy organisations.
What is the new UPEN Knowledge Mobilisation Community of Practice?
A Community of Practice is a group of people who share a capability and a mission.[1] At the core of any community of practice is peer learning; sharing experiences to learn from and with others to support improvements in everyday work. In our case, we are building a community around the practice of knowledge mobilisation in research-policy engagement.
Knowledge mobilisation aims to connect research and policy / practice to improve decisions and outcomes. Over recent years, we have seen increased recognition of the importance of this practice to increase access to evidence in complex public sector decision making. Yet we are still at the beginning of our understanding of approaches towards this practice, its impact upon effective academic-policy engagement, and establishing it as a distinct practice and skill-set.
The new UPEN Community of Practice will offer members opportunities to address barriers in their work, develop knowledge mobilisation practice, and build relationships with colleagues from across universities, policy organisations and beyond. We hope that the community will provide a safe, constructive, innovative space with diverse ways to contribute and participate.
We are excited to be working with colleagues through UPEN Programmes to launch this community of practice. We hope that together we can collectively shape a vital and invigorating space for knowledge mobilisers across UPEN and beyond to share and learn from each other on what knowledge mobilisation practices work, under what conditions, and why.
Dr Hannah DurrantUPEN Programmes Institutional Lead, Wales Centre for Public Policy
What will the Community of Practice do?
The Community of Practice has the following core aims:
To develop peer-learning, networks, and innovation within the public policy knowledge mobilisation community
To develop collective knowledge of knowledge mobilisation approaches and impacts and effectively communicate it beyond the immediate knowledge mobilisation community
To strengthen cross-sector relationships that contribute to sustainable research-policy interactions.
Activities will be co-developed by members. These might include such activities as;
Sharing problems and collective problem-solving
Sharing approaches, impacts and what does and doesn’t work
Co-creating practical resources
Developing and testing new approaches to knowledge mobilisation
Workshops and training opportunities
Interactions with research users and funders to build awareness of knowledge mobilisation
Ultimately, the Community aims to progress practice and address barriers to knowledge mobilisation approaches and impacts at individual and systemic levels. This builds upon the work of the Capabilities in Academic Policy-Engagement project, and their exploration of the skills of knowledge mobilisers in public policy through their report, Hidden Talents: Core Competencies of Knowledge Mobilisers in Public Policy.
Who is invited to join the Community of Practice?
We welcome anyone who is a ‘knowledge mobiliser’ or ‘knowledge broker’ in academic-policy engagement or has an interest in the research or practice of knowledge mobilisation in the same context from the UK or beyond. This includes anyone whose job involves working to support the use of academic evidence by policy making, through knowledge transfer, synthesis, and interaction between universities and policy organisations. These could include research and analytical functions within national and local government or public services, university policy engagement centres or research units, public policy institutes or think tanks, government advisory groups or councils, ‘what works centres’ as well as wider UPEN members.
The inaugural meeting of our Knowledge Mobilisation Community of Practice will take place online, 3 November, 10:00-12:00. The meeting will focus on beginning to shape overall activities and topics of the Community, as well as providing an opportunity to try out some peer learning activities.
Over the next three years, the Community of Practice will meet at least quarterly. Differing levels of involvement are welcome and expected – you might want to show up once, run a session yourself, or take on a leading role.
We invite all knowledge mobilisers, or anyone with an interest in the practice of knowledge mobilisation, to come along and shape our agenda, and to share and develop knowledge mobilisation approaches and impacts.
About the Knowledge Mobilisation Community of Practice
The Community of Practice is convened by the Wales Centre for Public Policy as part of UPEN Programmes, funded by Research England, UKRI and ESRC. The Community of Practice supports delivery of UPEN Programmes and provides learning for the wider UPEN membership. If you have any questions, please get in touch with the team by emailing Hannah Durrant.
