Develop Skills

Our training program is intended for researchers across all disciplines and at all career stages. No matter your experience level, the training program will help you refine your approach to communication and partnerships with the public, private and not-for-profit sectors throughout your research. Learn more about our Kx capacity-building framework. 

The program aims to develop core skills in knowledge exchange through a combination of workshops and resources.

Workshops

We have limited capacity at the moment. You are welcome to send us a request that we will examine in light of our availability. All the workshops are free and currently being offered through virtual synchronous sessions.

• Communicate your research message: emphasizes the importance of effective communication and provides guidance on when, how, and with whom to communicate to amplify your message.
• Situate your research in a wider context: introduces targeted strategies to help participants map new systems and better navigate the ones in which they are already involved.
• Align protocols, expectations and processes: provides guidance about how to establish and maintain parameters for research collaboration to start on the right foot and course-correct when things don't go as planned.
• Co-create activities, products, and tools: consider why, when and how external knowledge can enrich your research and drive change. Look at ways of mobilizing different types of knowledge at different stages of the research process through interactive methods and relational approaches.
• Plan for change: design an integrated and long-term plan to drive positive change with your research.

This training program was developed with the help of contributors from the research support and capacity development, community engagement, government relations, communication and commercialization areas at UBC. We wish to thank them all warmly for enriching this training with their knowledge and insights.

Fostering Research Collaborations

This toolkit was developed to enable other organizations to adapt and use the UBC Knowledge Exchange training materials in their context. It is adapted from a workshop offered to graduate students interested in establishing meaningful research partnerships.

• workshop brief
• original presentation (slide deck)
• detailed facilitator guide 

Projects funded 

In 2020, the Public Scholars Initiative (PSI) partnered with the Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) and the UBC Knowledge Exchange Unit to offer the Research to Action grants. The goal of the program was to support public scholars take their community-engaged research and knowledge exchange activities to a meaningful next step with a low barrier grant (up to $1,500).  

Six projects were supported:

Jenna van Draanen - Stories from the trenches

The R2A grant supports an existing CUES project titled “Stories from the trenches: a community-led knowledge translation project," led in partnership between the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) and the Overdose Prevention Society (OPS), which consists of developing three issues of a community-led magazine that summarize findings from original research occurring at the OPS, reflections on the research, and other original writing, art, and photography. The R2A grant will help fund capacity-building workshops aimed at increasing writing and creative capacity among clients, peer support staff, and community members at the OPS.

Yujie Ji – Chone Tibetan Stories
“The Collaborative Documentation, Development and Publication of the Chone Tibetan Story Book” project aims to help promote the dwindling Chone Tibetan language through recorded fables and folktales. In doing so, the project also helps sustain local linguistic variety and cultural identities. The R2A grant will support the production of a story book written in Chone Tibetan, Chinese, and English.

Patrick Dowd – Children’s Book from Tibet
The “Linguistically and Culturally Relevant Children’s Books for Eastern Tibet” project aims to facilitate literacy in and preservation of the endangered Domé Nomad dialect through creating engaging children’s books written in this language. The R2A grant would support the creation of a three book set entitled Little Nomad Readers, including the translation, testing, and publication phases.

Amir Michalovich – Screening Lives
The “Screening Lives, Building Futures” project enables secondary school students from refugee and migrant backgrounds to tell their stories through cinematography. This project will help improve students’ presentation and communication skills in line with the BC Curriculum and promote knowledge exchange between students and teachers. The R2A grant will make this project possible by funding recording equipment and software, office supplies, and honoraria.

Dana James and Evan Bowness – Mobilizing Climate Justice
The “Mobilizing Climate Justice Research” project aims to expand its reach and share important information on climate-related issues and movements. The R2A Grant would support mobilization of knowledge through the development of a high quality, professional website, and full maintenance for a period of 3 years.

Kimberly Sharpe – Worklearn BC
The “Geographic variations in workers’ compensation healthcare spending and utilization” project aims to create an interactive mapping tool using Geographic Information Systems software to compile healthcare procedures and spendings across different Canadian regions.  The R2A grant will help fund a virtual workshop that will identify knowledge user values, needs and goals and inform the development of the tool.

Discover ways of exchanging knowledge and engaging with non-academic partners. Meet other researchers, students and representatives from various organizations who are keen to engage in knowledge exchange activities or who are already well-involved in such practice.

Knowledge exchange summer institute – July 20 – 24, 2020

Connect your research in COVID times – June 3, 2020

Candid Conversations - The importance of dialogue in generating impact – May 15, 2019

Take a look at the stories behind the conversations:

• “We all have things we need to unload”
• Co-creating a shared vision for Canada’s oceans
• “You had me at “how can I help?”