Knowledge Exchange (KE)

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Knowledge Exchange (KE) is a two-way process through which knowledge, ideas, and experience are shared between researchers and non-academic partners — businesses, public services, third-sector organisations, communities — to mutual benefit. It is widely used in UK higher-education policy, notably Research England’s Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF), and in Scottish funding contexts.

Three terms, three national usages — this is the substance, not a formality

Three closely related terms describe overlapping activity but are used differently by different funders, and that national divergence is worth learning precisely rather than treating the terms as interchangeable synonyms. Knowledge Exchange (KE) is the UK/UKRI term used here, emphasising bidirectionality between researchers and named non-academic sectors, reported via the KEF’s seven perspectives. Knowledge Mobilisation (KMb) is the term preferred in Canadian social-science and humanities funding (SSHRC) and in UK education research, conceptually broader than KE and emphasising intermediary “broker” roles — see knowledge mobilisation. Knowledge Translation (KT) is the term anchored by Canada’s CIHR and used above all in health research, distinguishing end-of-grant dissemination from knowledge co-produced with users throughout the project — see knowledge translation. Using the wrong term for the wrong funder or discipline reads as a mismatch to a reviewer familiar with that funder’s own vocabulary.

What KE covers

KE encompasses consultancy, contract research, collaborative research, continuing professional development, IP commercialisation, public engagement, and infrastructure sharing. The KEF reports on universities’ KE activity across seven perspectives, benchmarked against similar institutions rather than assessed on an absolute scale, explicitly to emphasise that “good” KE looks different across an arts college, a technical university, and a research-intensive institution.

What this means for research administration

Report KE activity as genuinely bidirectional — what the university learned from a partner, not only what it delivered to one — and use KEF’s seven-perspective structure (or your funder’s equivalent) rather than treating dissemination counts alone as evidence of exchange.

References

Research England, Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF).
National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement, EDGE tool for engagement evaluation.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

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Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

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