Overcoming Common Anxieties in Knowledge Translation: Advice for Scholarly Issue Advocates

Faced with urgent threats to human health and well-being such as climate change, calls among the academic community are getting louder to contribute more effectively to the implementation of the evidence generated by our research, including in public policy.^1-3 Although normative debates about whether scholars should engage in policy work persist, university strategic plans and academic funding agencies increasingly define “research excellence” not just as the creation of knowledge but also the “mobilization of knowledge for impact.”^4, 5 In response, there is an emerging group of academics, labeled by Pielke as “issue advocates,” who see shaping public policy as their responsibility as scholars and citizens.^6, 7 This constituency goes beyond the path of the “honest broker” who disseminates their research honestly and clearly, often around time rhythms shaped by the academy. Issue advocates combine these passive knowledge translation (KT) tactics with more active strategies that tailor evidence mobilization for the realities and vagaries of the world of politics.⁶ It is this constituency for whom we pen this paper. We seek to equip the budding issue advocate with high-level advice on where to begin when one seeks to mobilize evidence into policy.

References

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5. UBC strategic plan: shaping UBC’s next century. The University of British Columbia. 2023. Accessed May 15, 2023. https://strategicplan.ubc.ca
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