KMb Advice for Americans / Conseil sur la MdC pour les américains

By David Phipps (ResearchImpact, York)
Thanks to @KTExchange for giving David Phipps (RIR-York) the chance to speak to Americans about the Canadian KT (=KMb) secret. American citizens, community agencies and lawmakers can learn from their Canadian counterparts.
Merci à @KTExchange d’avoir donné la chance à David Phipps (RIR-York) de parler aux Américains à propos du secret canadien en matière de TC (=MdC). Les citoyens américains, les agences communautaires ainsi que les législateurs peuvent en apprendre de leurs vis-à-vis canadiens.
“Develop an engaged community sector and elect a government that will listen.”
Those were my parting words to the audience at the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media in Atlanta as we gathered to debate if the (hypothetical) Canadian KT secret is exportable to the US. I developed some preliminary thinking about this in a recent blog where I proposed the US needs a social Bayh Dole Act to mandate KT on American campuses.
A social Bayh Dole Act would focus on public good as an outcome. It would not encourage the false promise of private gain from the commercialization of university research inherent in Bayh Dole mediated technology transfer. A social Bayh Dole Act will require a paradigm shift of engagement in civic and academic America. We heard from the audience that US Foundations and charities are fragmented, do not speak with a unified voice and do not collaborate on funding research projects. We also heard that in a commercialized and competitive health care system there is not a culture of sharing and collaboration, both necessary antecedents of successful KT.
The health charities in Canada were critical in the transition from the Medical Research Council (MRC) to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). It is because of Canadian health charities that CIHR has the 13 Institutes it has.  It is because of the health charities that CIHR has a legislated KT mandate. Because of the health charities, run by citizens engaged in their health causes, the Canadian government (via CIHR) now invests over $800M per year creating new knowledge and translating that knowledge new health services, policies and products.
The US can benefit from a social Bayh Dole Act. To get there it will need the advocacy of an engaged and coordinated community sector that demands a public return on public investments in research.  It will also need a government that listens to Americans and acts as the Canadian government did in 2000 when it passed the CIHR Act.
All the US needs to do is develop an engaged community sector and elect a government that will listen.


Stephen Linder (The University of Texas School of Public Health) and David Phipps (RIR-York) giving KMb Advice to Americans