Building Scientist Capacity in Knowledge Translation: Development of the Knowledge Translation Planning Template

Melanie Barwick

doi:10.22215/timreview/1015

Abstract

The last fifteen years have seen a fundamental shift in the importance of knowledge translation in health research and clinical care. Health research funders have incorporated knowledge translation into their missions, strategic directions, and funding opportunities, encouraging knowledge translation and implementation science and requiring knowledge translation practice from researchers working across the health research pillars – basic, clinical, health services, and population health. Healthcare and research organizations have changed their landscape as well, hiring knowledge translation practitioners to bridge research and practice for a range of knowledge users. Universities are shifting criteria for academic promotion to incorporate knowledge translation. Growing attention to knowledge translation in research, practice, and scholarship has created a need for researchers and practitioners to develop knowledge translation skills and competencies related to their research, scholarship, and organizational activities. The Knowledge Translation Planning Template was developed to support knowledge translation planning for scientists in health and other sectors. This article provides an overview of the rationale for its development, introduces the tool components, and describes preliminary indicators of impact.

Highlights

Effective knowledge translation is viewed as essential for closing the research-to-practice gap in health research and clinical care (Balas & Boren, 2002; Morris et al, 2011) and ensuring a more efficient and effective use of research innovations in practice and policy
Health research funders in Canada, as elsewhere, have incorporated knowledge translation into their mission, strategic directions, and funding opportunities, thereby encouraging knowledge translation and implementation science and requiring knowledge translation practice from researchers working across the health research pillars – basic, clinical, health services, and population health (Ellis, 2014; Tetroe et al, 2008)
Use of the Knowledge Translation Planning Template activates the user’s ability to analyze the core components of knowledge translation, another higher-order learning objective, as the user outlines in stepwise fashion the core elements of the plan as it pertains to the project or research endeavour and describes the knowledge translation goals, strategies, and evaluation metrics for each targeted knowledge user

Summary

Introduction

Effective knowledge translation is viewed as essential for closing the research-to-practice gap in health research and clinical care (Balas & Boren, 2002; Morris et al, 2011) and ensuring a more efficient and effective use of research innovations in practice and policy. The growing attention to knowledge translation across sectors has created an imperative for both researchers and practitioners to develop skills for knowledge translation planning as it relates to research, academia, or organizational activities To this end, the Scientist Knowledge Translation Training course (Barwick et al, 2005) was developed through SickKids Research Institute and CHSRF funding (2004–2007) to assist researchers in developing their knowledge of knowledge translation, its application and relevance to their own research, and in the development of knowledge translation planning skills that could be applied to: i) research funding proposals and ii) to the subsequent conduct of successful projects to increase the impact of their work. The Knowledge Translation Planning Template is available as a downloadable static or fillable worksheet, and it is organized as 13 core planning steps/components: 1. Identifying the project partners

13. Details of how the knowledge translation strategies will be implemented

Limitations

Findings

Conclusion