Knowledge Mobilisation (KMb)

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Knowledge mobilisation (KMb) is the processes by which research evidence and other forms of knowledge are made accessible, useful, and used by communities, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders to inform decisions and action. It is the term preferred in Canadian social-science and humanities contexts (notably SSHRC’s KMb framework) and in UK education research (e.g. the Education Endowment Foundation, Research Schools Network).

How KMb differs from its two closest siblings

KMb, Knowledge Exchange (KE), and Knowledge Translation (KT) describe closely related activity but are the vocabulary of three different funder traditions, and the divergence is worth learning precisely. KE is the UKRI/UK term, organised around the bidirectional Knowledge Exchange Framework. KT is CIHR’s term, anchored specifically in health research and formalised through the Knowledge-to-Action framework. KMb sits conceptually broader than both: it is not sector-restricted to health (unlike KT) and explicitly recognises humanities and arts-based outputs alongside evidence, not only formal research findings. KMb also foregrounds intermediary roles — brokers, boundary spanners — more explicitly than either KE or KT frameworks typically do.

Push and pull

KMb encompasses both “push” approaches (researchers proactively disseminating and tailoring findings for specific audiences) and “pull” approaches (practitioners and policymakers seeking out evidence to answer a live question), and recognises that effective mobilisation of knowledge often requires a dedicated intermediary role rather than direct researcher-to-user transmission alone.

What this means for research administration

A KMb plan that names no resources for a broker or intermediary role, or that treats mobilisation as one-way researcher-to-practitioner communication, does not reflect how the term is actually used by the funders (SSHRC, EEF) that popularised it — budget and describe the intermediary function explicitly.

References

SSHRC, Knowledge Mobilisation framework, sshrc-crsh.gc.ca.
Education Endowment Foundation, evidence-use studies.

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

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Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

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