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Co-designing a university-wide framework : structure, systems and services that support knowledge mobilization at UBC

University of British Columbia

Knowledge Mobilization or KMb aims to make university-generated knowledge more relevant and beneficial to a variety of decision makers. The topic of knowledge mobilization is central to discussions in academia, government and the general public because it is understood that effective knowledge mobilization practices have the potential to support positive social impacts. Deliberations about the opportunity and potential role for knowledge mobilization are active at The University of British Columbia, a global and highly intensive research institution that has been recently recognized as one of the world’s most innovative universities. This dissertation addresses an identified need for research: how to explore, design and develop a prospectus and framework for Knowledge Mobilization at The University of British Columbia. An overarching research question: How to co-design a university-wide framework: structure, systems and services that support Knowledge Mobilization at UBC served as a starting point and involved consultations with professors, students, staff and external stakeholders. The researcher applied the Strategic Design Method that is well suited to address multi-sectoral, complex problems such as knowledge mobilization systems. Phase one involved gathering data from UBC professors, students, and staff through studio sessions and interviews with the goal to understand the scope of several relevant KMb initiatives in UBC. This exploratory phase uncovered challenges experienced by UBC participants. They suggested that a university-wide framework that oversees and strengthens UBC’s capacity to improve KMb would be an asset. Phase two involved consulting with external stakeholders ranging from public servants, industry representatives and the general public. A second round of design sessions led to the co-design of a particular framework with specific components or themes: place, people, programs and services, and prospective research and systems. Phase three explored strengthening the co-designed framework through a planning logic model with the main components: brokering, training, leadership, research & development and support. The results of this research will support UBC and its efforts to develop the UBC Knowledge Exchange, and its overarching strategies oriented to strengthening UBC’s knowledge mobilization capacity and research competitiveness.

Text

2019-04-01

Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69389

Interdisciplinary Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/