The NIHR is committed to maximising the impact of research by addressing the most important issues in health and social care leading to significant benefits for patients, service users and the public.

RDS WM are leading a national priority to on introducing the concept of impact, knowledge mobilisation and dissemination into the research design process. Each of the 10 RDS offices has an ‘Impact Champion’ who attended an NIHR training course in 2021 and are constantly developing their understanding of impact. They are working on a number of toolkits and guidelines for use by RDS advisors, their research clients and funding panels.

The overall aim is for RDS to provide support to  health and social care researchers to help them proactively plan for knowledge mobilisation through consideration of implementation potential, early engagement with key stakeholders, and by helping clients to chart a clear trajectory to patient and public benefit. This ongoing work will support greater research impact, relevance and value.

What do we mean by the term ‘Impact’ in an applied health research setting?

Impact is the demonstrable contribution that research makes to society and the economy, of benefit to individuals, organisations and nations.

What do we mean by the term ‘Knowledge Mobilisation (KMb)?

KMb is the process that paves the way to impact being realised by actively bringing stakeholders together throughout the research cycle to share, respond to, and act upon research plans and findings.

What do we mean by the term ‘Dissemination’?

Dissemination is an active approach to spreading of research findings to the target audience via determined channels using planned strategies.

Read our recent blog here that was written by members of the West Midlands KMb Collaboration (Krysia Dziedzic, k.s.dziedzic@keele.ac.uk and Fiona Cowdell, fiona.cowdell@bcu.ac.uk) 

https://www.rdsblog.org.uk/getting-knowledge-mobilisation-embedded-in-research

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