David Phipps (RIR- York)

The ResearchSnapshot clear language research summary database holds 170 summaries. Thanks to a summer of writing at York University and collaborations with ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche universities and other knowledge mobilization organizations this number is poised to triple over the next few months.

La banque de résumés en langage claire ResearchSnapshot contient désormais 170 items. Grâce au travail estival de l’université de York, en collaboration avec des universités du RéseauImpactRecherche – ResearchImpact ainsi qu’avec d’autres organisations de mobilisation des connaissances, ce nombre est amené à tripler dans les prochains mois.

School has begun and it’s time not only to look forward to planning for another academic year of knowledge mobilization services but to also look back on the work of the summer. We held a very successful KMb Expo introducing social innovation, the outcome of the process of knowledge mobilization. We travelled to CUExpo, CAURA and Congress where the most frequently heard question was “how can my university join ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche?”  We started the KMb journal club. We got two papers accepted in peer reviewed journals and were invited to write a chapter in a forthcoming book.

And we wrote in clear language. A lot.  Last year, we published 28 new ResearchSnapshot clear language research summaries. This year summer we completed 44 summaries that will be posted in our online searchable database which already contains 170 ResearchSnapshot. In June, we committed to writing about social determinants of health. We are pleased that 21 of the 44 completed research summaries deal with issues related to social determinants of health, those social factors such as poverty, immigration, disability, education that contribute to health inequities. This collection will be a valuable resource for our recently awarded grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to undertake community based knowledge brokering for social determinants of health.

In addition, we have written clear language summaries of research from the University of Victoria and have collaborated with our York University KMb colleagues at the Homeless Hub to produce some of their research summaries in the ResearchSnapshot format. One example is the research produced in collaboration with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities that is summarized in the ResearchSnapshot “While home ownership has increased, more people are at risk of homelessness in the cities.”