By David Phipps, from remarks made on June 17, 2022.
During the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum 2022, Research Impact Canada created two new awards recognizing the contributions Peter Levesque has made to knowledge mobilization in Canada. While Peter was unable to join the awards ceremony in person we did receive videos from him acknowledging the awards.
Peter Levesque Award for Promoting Knowledge Mobilization as a Profession
Peter Levesque was working in knowledge mobilization before it was called knowledge mobilization. He led development and implementation of the SSHRC Community University Research Alliance in the 1990s. He and I met in the early 2000s when I was working at CIHR. We have maintained a professional and personal relationship since then. I am proud to call Peter a friend.
Peter founded the Institute for Knowledge Mobilization in 2011 to build knowledge mobilization capacity in Canada. He launched The Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum in 2012 which became the flagship program of the Institute. Peter designed the Forum as a place for scholars and practitioners from academic and non-academic organizations to come together regardless of their discipline or focus of their work. To this day, the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum is a conference where you can find someone studying gambling and addictions presenting alongside with someone supporting knowledge mobilization for ocean research. We are joined by our shared interest in helping research, knowledge and evidence become useful to and used by organizations seeking to make the world a better place.
There are awards for knowledge mobilization scholarship such as the SSHRC Impact Awards. There are awards for graduate students employing knowledge mobilization strategies in their graduate student research such as the annual graduate student awards from Research Impact Canada. There are awards for community based research projects from CBR Canada. But until today, there hasn’t been an award recognizing excellence in knowledge mobilization as a profession.
I am pleased to announce that Research Impact Canada has created the Peter Levesque Award for Promoting Knowledge Mobilization as a Profession.
We are still working out the details and those will be announced later this year but this award will be made to an individual or a team that has shown consistent efforts and developed tools, training and incentives that support skills and career paths for professional knowledge mobilizers in Canada.
Here is a video from Peter accepting this award in his name.
And then later, at an in-person event for mobilizers in the Toronto area, we announced a dedicated award made to Peter which we called the Research Impact Canada Award of Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization.
The Institute for Knowledge Mobilization has made awards for Leadership in Knowledge Mobilization. I was privileged to receive one of those awards as was Melanie Barwick, Implementation Scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children. Earlier we announced the creation of an award in Peter’s name for contributions to knowledge mobilization as a profession. Today it is our turn to recognize Peter’s leadership in knowledge mobilization in Canada.
I am delighted to let you know that the Governance Committee of Research Impact Canada unanimously endorsed the Research Impact Canada award of Excellence in Knowledge Mobilization recognizing that we likely wouldn’t be here in this setting if not for Peter’s early efforts bringing this diverse group together through workshops, tool development, forums and indeed, poetry. Peter says knowledge mobilization is an act of love. This is a chance for us to let Peter know that we return that love with respect and admiration.
Here now is a video of Peter accepting his award.