Aha moments from K* – Tuesday, April 24, 2012

David Phipps, RIR-York

Glowen Kyei-Mensah

Ghana. Canada. England. Mauritius. Netherlands. Argentina. Scotland. Germany. Australia. United States. And many more. The opening reception of the K* conference brought together many friends of ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche and introduced us to new knowledge intermediary colleagues from around the world.
The start of the K* (“Kstar”) conference saw the 60 or so delegates going through some ice breaking events to get to know each other – which might have been needed in other settings but the energy was high this evening as brokers and policy makers got to chat to researchers and practitioners from around the world.
I am pleased to say that the two delegates with whom I am sharing a panel, Leandro Echt from Centro de Implementación de Políticas Públicas para la Equidad y el Crecimiento (CIPPEC, Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth), Buenos Ares, Argentia and Glowen Kyei-Mensah from Participatory Development Associates in Accra, Ghana were the finalists in the competition to win a copy of Louise Shaxon’s book.
Louise Shaxon (ODI, UK) and colleagues had a pre-launch of their book, Knowledge Policy and Power in Internatioinal Develeopment, A Practical Guide.
Leandro Echt

This book includes a chapter on knowledge intermediaries and how we all, at some point, act as knowledge intermediaries in connecting science and research to policy and practice. The book launch was the first event of the K* program.
I am delighted to be representing York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit and the ResearchImpact-RéseauImpactRecherche network at this international workshop designed to describe a global knowledge intermediary practice. I shall be blogging and tweeting throughout the week. Stay tuned for stories from the floor of the K* conference.
It’s also the closest any of us will come to knowledge mobilization groupies. “I am a huge fan of your work”. “We are using your publications as the basis of our intermediary work.” “Your blog is amazing” are some of the comments that made me smile this evening.