New name and expanded services for Knowledge to Impact team

The university’s Knowledge Engagement team in the Research Services Office (RSO) has officially changed its name to the Knowledge to Impact (KI) team. This change reflects the team’s diverse and expanding set of supports offered to faculty and students on campus. 

“Building capacity and supporting the entire journey to impact is our mission,” says Stephanie Warner, manager of the Knowledge to Impact team. “Our approach values openness, reciprocity, and inclusivity, essential for fostering a robust research culture at UCalgary.”

The team can strategically support researchers in the following areas: 

1. Research partnerships: Fostering collaborations between researchers and community organizations to encourage diverse pathways to impact. 
2. Knowledge mobilization: Guidance for researchers around effectively sharing their findings with audiences and helping their work to influence policy and practice. 
3. Assessment: Tools and resources to help researchers articulate and assess their work's societal impact, addressing the need for appropriate recognition of various forms of scholarship including open science. 
4. Funding support: Assistance to researchers to align with new requirements from funders, including those focused on knowledge mobilization, the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and open science. 
5. Collaborative Initiatives: Active collaboration with other university units such as the Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Office, units within RSO and the Vice-President (Research) portfolio, and Faculties to ensure cohesive support for research initiatives. 

The Knowledge to Impact team invites the campus community to visit ucalgary.ca/knowledge-impact for a detailed listing of areas where they can help, or contact the team directly using their updated email address, knowledge.impact@ucalgary.ca.

Supporting research impact and real-world applications

Knowledge to Impact has been advising teams since it launched in 2019 on how to navigate collaborative partnerships and diverse research pathways. By offering in-person consultations, workshops, and self-guided resources, the KI team guides researchers through the complexities of turning research findings into actionable solutions. Some of their previous workshop offerings include strategic planning for community-engaged projects and advising on how to effectively engage partners from the start.

This guidance was instrumental in helping UCalgary researcher Dr. Nicole Letourneau, PhD, build her community partnership with YW Calgary. Through consultations with the KI team, Letourneau’s team was able to identify specific community needs which ultimately led to funded internships that provide meaningful support for local initiatives.

“Working with the Knowledge to Impact team brought greater focus to our relationship with our community partner and helped us identify another specific need my team could address,” says Letourneau, a professor at the Cumming School of Medicine and Faculty of Nursing. “Now, my Alliance against Violence and Adversity (AVA) CIHR Health Research Training Platform is funding an internship at YW to help with their new ShelterLink initiative. This is a win for everyone!"

Most recently, Knowledge to Impact has expanded support beyond a focus on collaboration and knowledge mobilization, to include both best practices in research assessment and advancing open scholarship.

Expanded commitment to societal impact and open science

In 2021, UCalgary signed the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), and joined a global movement to promote best practices in evaluating research. DORA aims for thoughtful inclusion of broader types of research outputs and societal impact through policies and practices that accurately measure and wisely evaluate the quality and impact of research. DORA paves the way for consideration of scholarly activities that are typically not captured in bibliometrics, such as community engagement, reports to government, research creation, and outputs such as datasets, software, and performances.

The KI team plays a key role in implementing DORA’s recommendations, facilitating workshops and providing online tools that help researchers demonstrate their impact effectively in this evolving ecosystem.

Knowledge to Impact is also committed to providing resources to help researchers integrate open science principles into their work. By adopting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, UCalgary aims to amplify research impact, support high-quality research and create new opportunities for engagement between researchers, policymakers, and community members. In late November 2024, the KI team will be hosting an Intro to Open Science webinar, with registration opening later this month. Interested scholars should sign up for the KI newsletter to be notified. 

To learn more about how the Knowledge to Impact team can assist your research, you can book a consultation, explore the available resources, or visit the website for information.