Knowledge Transfer: Between Impact, Necessity, and Creativity

Migration and mobility research is often undertaken with the goal of either producing evidence-based policy-making, providing a more in-depth understanding of migration and mobility to the general wider public, or creating change and having an impact on situations deemed unjust. Yet, how can scientific knowledge be transferred in meaningful ways that create an impact? This blog series introduces some concrete examples of potential avenues well worth exploring.

In the first few days, as I started working as Knowledge Transfer Officer at the nccr – on the move, I  vaguely heard about researchers, who were creating a comic book about their results. It turned out this was not only a rumor, but that the project was almost in its final stages. In the process, I also discovered a documentary being made by another researcher.

Motivated by the work of these NCCR researchers and wanting to better understand the variety of creative means that could be used in migration and mobility research to transfer knowledge to non-academic audiences, we organized a workshop in November 2022. But what is knowledge transfer? Why should we do it? And why resort to creative ways of transferring knowledge?

What Is Knowledge Transfer and Why We Do It?

Knowledge transfer “is broadly understood to encompass the exchange, synthesis, and application of research results and other evidence between academic and practice settings” (in short, it refers to “the process of translating knowledge into action” (Ward et al. 2009). The audiences of knowledge transfer activities in the case of research on migration and mobility can be the ‘general public’ (i.e., everyone), or targeted groups, such as the youth, policy-makers, trade unionists, NGOs supporting migrants, media, etc.

Creating bridges between research and society is crucial “because scientific expertise matters for many individual, organizational and societal decisions, but also because science and research rely on public acceptance and societal legitimation” (Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences 2021). Hence, it is nowadays a requirement for most publicly funded research.

But besides the increased recognition of its importance, it is still a somewhat neglected activity, particularly in social sciences. Such research is often carried out by smaller teams or by individuals lacking the resources for knowledge transfer activities. Results might come in the form of recommendations about a specific topic, which makes it hard to measure their exact social impact to legitimize funding for knowledge transfer activities. Also, knowledge transfer is often perceived by the general public as concerning particularly STEM disciplines and medicine (Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences 2021). In the episodes of ‘science programs’ on Swiss radio and TV channels, such as RTS’s Micro sciences, SFR’s Einstein, or RSI’s Il giardino di Albert, social sciences-related topics remain in the minority.

However, this does not mean that social scientists have not pushed or done ‘knowledge transfer’. Most of the migration scholars I met – myself included – even started doing research to produce some change, to have an impact.

‘Having an Impact’ on the Cité and the Academia?

Knowledge dissemination outside of academia is particularly crucial, if we believe that research or science should contribute with empirically solid standpoints to changing and improving society. Even more so if we study realities shaped by inequalities, discrimination, exclusion, or oppression – as is often the case in migration and mobility studies.

However, mainstream academia mostly values researchers according to their academic publications and the granting of new research funding. This logic, amplified by academia’s increasingly precarious employment conditions, is detrimental to transferring research knowledge outside of the ‘ivory tower’ and into society. I, at least, felt that my research was not very useful precisely because of the way academia works right now, and I am convinced that these exchanges with the outside, with ‘the cité’ are also beneficial for research and intellectual thinking itself. They enable researchers to see what else needs to be looked into and better understood, as well as potentially changed.

Interestingly, it is often in social science studies that rely on participatory and collaborative methods – and are thus built on critical approaches aiming to question and counterbalance the power structures that characterize not only the phenomenon studied, but also mainstream knowledge production – that particular emphasis is put on finding creative ways to share research findings. Examples of this include Yvonne Riaño and Doris Niragire Nirere’s contributions to this blog series.

Creative Means as a Way to Engage More Fully the Audience

However, how do we make sure that what we produce within our institutional walls gets out there? The main dilemma that characterizes any attempt to do knowledge transfer remains how to communicate about our research, so that it has an impact and is useful?

There is no easy answer to these questions, and probably hundreds of ways to go about it. At the nccr – on the move, some researchers have used creative means to do so, relying on tools that engage with the audience in more than factual, verbal, or written ways, triggering different senses and approaches to understanding a topic. Besides what will be discussed in the next blog posts (on the uses of participatory exhibitions, forum theatre, and documentaries), last year a scientific comic book was also published, based on the research of an NCCR project and the doctoral thesis of one of our former doctoral students, and an exhibition on naturalization processes in Switzerland took place.

Of course, to properly and creatively engage in knowledge transfer requires time and economic resources. We are very lucky (and proud) that we get to support such brilliant initiatives, and we also hope that presenting these projects in the blog series will motivate the undertaking of similar projects in other institutions.

Nora Bardelli is the Knowledge Transfer Officer of the nccr – on the move.

References:

-Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. Science in the Swiss Public. “The State of Science Communication and Public Engagement with Science in Switzerland.” Swiss Academies Reports 16, no. 8 (2021).

-Ward, Vicky, Allan House, and Susan Hamer. “Developing a framework for transferring knowledge into action: a thematic analysis of the literature.” Journal of health services research & policy 14, no. 3 (2009): 156-164.