ID058 Transforming research so it can be used by those who would benefit

The Idea

Our idea is to build Knowledge Mobilisation for impact into every research portfolio. Keele’s research strategy has emphasised its institutional strength in Knowledge Mobilisation for impact. Whilst we see other Institutions adopting Knowledge Mobilisation in their strategies, Keele is an early adopter of Knowledge Mobilisation throughout several research portfolios, offering Keele’s research the best opportunity of securing external funding and making a difference to society. Knowledge mobilisation of research and its methods (such as Communities of Practice; creative practices) can impact multiple settings for example philanthropy, citizenship, scholarship, creative industries, industrial relations, sustainability. All these broader areas can become targets for the uptake of Keele’s research. 

Research impact on Health and Care is prominent in all faculties and supported by funding from NIHR and Arthritis UK. However, the potential of Knowledge Mobilisation to unlock research impact in other areas such as sustainability is strong. A recent example is our Knowledge Mobilisation support for a funded evaluation of a public health (PHIRST) project (the ZEBRA project) based in Oxfordshire County Council’s £32.8 million Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme to introduce 159 electric buses. The regional PHIRST team has just been awarded the Best Public Transport Decarbonisation prize for their evaluation. Keele could build capacity across the University making us a stronger collaborator in large collaborative grants by building on our base of collective expertise. 

Impact from research is a priority for all research funders. Knowledge mobilisation practices offer approaches across disciplines. These approaches can be embedded in grants as would community involvement in research or public involvement. Methodologies such as community participatory designs and coproduction with creative methods often sit outside of health. Knowledge Mobilisation can be included as part of any training fellowship in any discipline at all levels.  

The School of Medicine has established a dedicated unit where Knowledge Mobilisation practice is supported alongside research to strengthen Keele’s methods and approaches to accelerating the uptake of Keele’s research - and those of others - into real world application. This Impact Accelerator Unit (IAU) has been established for a decade and is nationally and internationally recognised. Warwick University in collaboration with Keele produced two impact reports on the IAU using an ethnographic approach and qualitative interviews (1,2). The report describes much of the first 6 years, the IAU development, the number of people interviewed within the IAU at the time, the funding model and reference to the impact generated through the REF2021 exercise. We responded to the recommendations that were offered and these have strengthened our IAU approaches. 

The funding model of the IAU 

The IAU is supported by external income with one full time and two part time researchers, four seconded senior knowledge mobilisation fellows and three researchers on fixed term contracts renewed as funding is secured. Over the past 10 years we have developed Knowledge Mobilisation Fellows in practice and research. This has been achieved through PhDs and externally funded Fellowships.  

The IAU also has a dedicated group of professional services specialist staff in Public Involvement in Research and Knowledge Brokering. Professional services staff in the IAU are also funded through grant income. Core grants include IAU support of the successful £11m NIHR Mental Health Research Group and NIHR £4.5m PROTECTs programme. Grant income includes NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowships, a three-year funded secondment (one day a week) to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. The Deputy Director has secured £0.5M MRC grant to explore public involvement in experimental medicine. NIHR infrastructure grants increasingly see Knowledge Mobilisation as core so future grant applications will see functions of the IAU costed (e.g. NIHR Biomedical Research Centres). 

We have developed strong pathways to impact with public involvement in research which are recognised nationally e.g. the Unit leads the national NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Incubator for Research Inclusion; runs an International Summer School for Knowledge Mobilisation; hosts the Race Equality Ambassador for Public Involvement in Research; and curates the Listening Involving Forging Trust (LIFT) in musculoskeletal research (Arthritis UK, The Kennedy Trust, Orthopaedic Research UK). 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

Impact is a core requirement of Keele’s research. It represents at least 25% of the estimated £50 million funding that the Research Excellence Framework awards Keele. Keele doesn’t hold a UKRI Impact Accelerator Account. With the new REF2029 guidelines the IAU and Knowledge Mobilisation will be even more prominent in Impact Case study excellence. 

Knowledge Mobilisation is inclusive, involving academics, researchers, research enabling staff, policy makers, industry partners, practitioners and the public. Current activities such as evidence-based practice groups with NHS partners, and public involvement in engagement in research, have established themselves over the last 20 years. 

The principles and methods of impact acceleration are held not only in health, but we also see strong coproduction and creative methods in humanities research and knowledge translation engagement in discovery research for example in Music influencing new policy creation for ethical production, representation and distribution in the Global Ethnic Majority (Blackburn), Criminology, reducing uninsured driving (Wells) and uptake of Smart Energy Network Demonstrator practices (Robinson)

How We Would Implement This Idea

With pump-priming we could explore how to expand our methods beyond applied health research into other areas e.g. discovery research and community participation. We could harness skills across our faculties to maximise impact and grant capture in disciplinary areas. With additional investment the IAU could build on its current methods and extend this to Keele knowledge mobilisation fellows and training fellowships. We have also supported research grants embedding knowledge mobilisation right throughout the research cycle. Here we can adopt a whole range of methods from creative methods, participatory research through to big data analysis with electronic health records, design and evaluation of knowledge mobilisation. 

What Success Would Look Like

Our idea is to build knowledge mobilisation for impact into every Institutes’ and Centres’ research portfolios. Success rates in grants that embed Knowledge Mobilisation for impact will have higher success rates than those that don’t. Impact literacy will be distributed throughout the research ecosystem at Keele, and benefits to local, regional, national and internation communities will be felt through strong impact cases. 

Given that the Research Excellence Framework could reward Keele with at least £12.5 million for impact cases in REF2029, the return on investment (ROI) for an expanded Knowledge Mobilisation offer would be worthwhile. One 4* impact case study is the equivalent to 8 or 9 outputs rated 4*. Impact Case studies were curated by the IAU for REF2021 UoA2,3 and 12. In UoA3 we were ranked joint second in England for impact. 

Transforming research (Knowledge Mobilisation of research) so it can be used by others, including industry, is a key pillar in Keele’s current research strategy. The collective expertise across the Institution places Keele in a very strong position to develop this further as a unifying strength across all disciplines and build a national and international reputation for excellence in knowledge mobilisation  

References 

1. The production and scale of implementation of evidence-based innovation in a range of clinical domains through an Impact Acceleration Unit. Summary report after phase 1 of data collection Dr Agnieszka Latuszynska; Professor Graeme Currie, Warwick University 
2. The production and scale of implementation of evidence-based innovation in a range of clinical domains through an Impact Acceleration Unit. Image and Identity in negotiating sustainable growth of a hybrid organisation – the case of IAU. Summary report after phase 2 of data collection Dr Agnieszka Latuszynska; Professor Graeme Currie, Warwick University