Introducing the Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit

International Open Access Week (October 25-31, 2021) is here, providing a great opportunity to highlight our Open Access initiatives at the University of Dundee.

Globally, in the last 20 years, great efforts have been made to ensure that people who can benefit from new knowledge (e.g., the public, those working and living in the community and people tasked with key decision-making) have access to the most relevant and current information and research to enable them to make real impact on society.

Since 2020, the University of Dundee has progressed an Open Research strategy led by the Library and Learning Centre (LLC). To support the growth of an open access community, the School of Health Sciences and the School of Dentistry have appointed Open Research Champions (Mei Fang, Heather Cassie and Alex Gardner) with dedicated work allocations of 5% FTE WAMS each to work alongside members of the Library Learning Centre (Moya Fox, Philippa Sterlini and Tom Curtin).

A key outcome of this partnership was the assembly of an open research working group in February 2021 with a mandate to facilitate:

• ongoing research and development of best practice approaches for our interdisciplinary environment to make outputs, data and other products of our research publicly available, building on University of Dundee’s Open Research Policy and infrastructure
• a focus on knowledge mobilisation, and stakeholder and patient & public involvement.

We believe that the University’s open research agenda can be amplified through guidance and resources on how-to implement knowledge mobilisation activities throughout the research process (from proposal development to project completion).

Since June 2021, with funding support from the department of Organisational and Professional Development and the Doctoral Academy, the Open Research Working group has been working towards producing an Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) Toolkit. IKT is an approach to knowledge translation that emphasizes working in engaged and collaborative partnership with stakeholders throughout the research cycle in order to have positive real-world impact.

The goal is to produce an IKT Toolkit for Open Research for university-wide use. The IKT toolkit will help to support the development of the University’s Open Research strategy informed by innovative IKT principles to ensure that our research is not only available, but also accessible, and user-friendly for diverse stakeholders.

The IKT Toolkit will enable researchers to integrate and apply:

• mechanisms for sharing knowledge outside of traditional academic communication channels (e.g. social media, community colloquia, using knowledge and cultural brokers)
• easy and accessible directions for ensuring Open Research, making use of LLC and external resources and facilities
• IKT learning materials for co-creating knowledge with stakeholders, making research accessible, understandable, easy-to-read and user-friendly for making research-informed change.

The IKT Toolkit is being co-produced with Dr Lupin Battersby, Knowledge Mobilisation Specialist from Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilisation Hub in Canada and supported by Marianne Cranwell, a PhD researcher within the School of Education and Social Work. We are expecting to have the toolkit completed for wide circulation and use by the end of the year.

Stay tuned for the launch of University of Dundee’s IKT Toolkit!

By Dr Mei Lan Fang, Lecturer and Open Research Champion, School of Health Sciences, University of Dundee (on behalf of the Open Research Working Group)