Recognizing Knowledge Translation in Research

By Carly Leggett

We know that the practice of knowledge translation (KT) is influential, trans-formative, and valuable — but we also know that it can be expensive, time-consuming, and often (and worst of all) undervalued. One of the things we hear from researchers is that their KT activities aren’t weighed equally with their number of publications and total awarded grant dollars, despite taking a considerable amount of time and energy. Here we’ll look at the issue of crediting knowledge translation work in research portfolios and some ideas for making those contributions count.

How exactly does a person convey the value of a stakeholder-driven infographic or the co-creation of a video with patients and families? How can we capture the impact of in-kind time and resources in a way that holds value in ‘research currency’?

Through my role as a Knowledge Broker with Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK), I work extensively with content experts (researchers, clinicians, and clinician-researchers) in pediatric emergency medicine. These advisors contribute large amounts of in-kind time and expertise towards creating tools and documents related to pediatric emergency care. In recognition of their efforts, we have written various steps into our project guidelines for acknowledging their contributions to TREKK. Below are a few ways that TREKK recognizes the KT contributions of our content experts:

Acknowledgement of Effort

All content experts receive a formal Thank You letter from the TREKK Network Director once they have completed their work. The letter outlines exactly what they contributed to the project and is sent not only to the expert themselves, but also to the Department Head of their respective institution, the Dean of their Faculty, and the hospital CEO. This type of acknowledgement can go to any relevant stakeholder (e.g.: tenure committee members, supervisors, and funding agencies, to list a few) and can be retained in an individual’s research portfolio.

Citation of KT Work

TREKK has created a format for citing contributions to the development of knowledge translation resources for pediatric emergency care. This gives content experts an opportunity to include these grey literature citations on their curriculum vitaes (CVs). Below is an example of the citation formats used by TREKK:

For time spent reviewing and advising on TREKK resource lists:

Content Expert(s) & Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK). (Year). Evidence Repository: Topic Area, from http://trekk.ca/resources?tag_id=[ID when published]

For the creation of specific documents, such as bottom line recommendations:

Content Expert(s) & Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK). (Year). Bottom Line Recommendations: Topic Area, from (link)

Reporting to Funders

TREKK also tracks the hourly contributions of content experts to estimate a dollar amount for their in-kind contributions. For example, if the expert is a clinician who normally charges $150/hour and gives 30 hours a month to TREKK, we would calculate an in-kind contribution of approximately $4,500. These monetary figures are useful to quantify the contributions of our experts when reporting back to funding agencies, or in developing budgets for upcoming funding applications.

A Note on the Common CV (CCV)

The Canadian Common CV (CCV) is a “web-based application that provides researchers with a single, common approach to gathering CV information required by a network of federal, provincial, and not-for-profit research funding organizations, which includes the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Canadian health researchers are very familiar with the CCV and it is broadly used throughout research communities across the country. Originally developed in 2002, the CCV was completely redesigned in 2012 in order to meet the changing needs of the growing research community.

With regards to knowledge translation, the CCV says:

In this section, applicants can insert information regarding any activities relating to knowledge translation such as Business Innovation/Creation of Start-up, Citizen/Community Engagement, Consulting/R&D Collaboration for/with Industry, Policy/Regulation Development, Standards Development, and Technology Transfer and Commercialization. Further examples of what can be included here can be found in the Guide to Knowledge Translation Planning at CIHR: Integrated and End-of-Grant Approaches.

That’s an overview of how TREKK helps researchers and clinicians acknowledge their KT activities — we want to know how you acknowledge or credit your KT contributions. Are there unique ways to recognize KT that we should know about? Let us know in the comments section below or Tweet at us @KnowledgeNudge.

About the Author

Carly Leggett is the Manager and Practice Lead for the Knowledge Translation platform at the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI), as well as Knowledge Broker for Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK).