Imagining the Future of Knowledge Mobilization : Perspectives from UNESCO Chairs

Abstract

These themes weave through a new portfolio of thought leadership papers reflecting on the subject of Knowledge Mobilization (KMb): the process described by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as “encompassing a wide range of activities relating to the production and use of research results, including knowledge synthesis, dissemination, transfer, exchange, and co-creation or co-production by researchers and knowledge users.”1 Such activities, and others referenced in the papers written by seven members (six Canadian and one German) of the UNESCO Chairs network, aim to bridge the sometimes-deep divide between the creation of new knowledge and its application for social benefit. As several of these papers note, the KMb enterprise has assumed heightened importance in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and other grand challenges confronting humanity. But interest in KMb is not new, and a body of experience lies ready to inform efforts to learn and improve.