Bridging the Climate Information Gap: A Framework for Engaging Knowledge Brokers and Decision Makers in State Climate Assessments

Large-scale analyses like the National Climate Assessment (NCA) contain a wealth of information critical to national and regional responses to climate change but tend to be insufficiently detailed for action at state or local levels. Many states now engage in assessment processes to meet information needs for local authorities. The goals of state climate assessments (SCAs) should be to provide relevant, actionable information to state and local authorities, and to generate primary sources, build networks and inform stakeholders. To communicate local climate impacts to decision makers, SCAs should express credibility, salience and legitimacy. They can provide information (e.g., case studies, data sets) and connect stakeholders to the NCA and its process. Based on our experience in the Vermont Climate Assessment (VCA), we present a framework to engage decision makers in SCAs using a fluid network of scientific experts and knowledge brokers to conduct subject area prioritization, data analysis and writing. The VCA addressed economic, environmental and social impacts of climate change at local scales to increase resiliency and manage risk. Knowledge brokers communicated VCA findings through their own stakeholder networks. We include a qualitative impact evaluation, and believe our framework for interaction among scientists, knowledge brokers and stakeholders to be an effective structure for SCAs and a transformative experience for students

Knowledge brokers and rapid reviews: what do they do and how do they do it?

Knowledge brokering is a strategy frequently utilised to increase interaction between policymakers and researchers and build capacity for research. The Sax Institute uses knowledge brokers in one-off brief interventions to commission rapid reviews for use in decision making. Using knowledge brokers has been found to increase the clarity of rapid review proposals, yet little is known about how knowledge brokers assist policymakers to define their rapid research needs

Generating innovations through analogies: An empirical investigation of knowledge brokers

In this paper we explore how knowledge brokers - specialised design and engineering companies offering services to clients in diverse industries - use analogies for product development. Our research is based on interviews with project leaders of 13 knowledge brokering companies. The interviews focused on product development projects in which analogies were used. First, we categorize these cases according to the motivation to use analogies (efficiency vs. innovativeness). Second, we describe and analyse the process of using analogies. Our results show that analogies are frequently and very pragmatically applied throughout the whole development process. We also found that individual characteristics of the persons participating in such projects are the crucial factor that influences the outcome of the project. --product development,knowledge brokers,analogy

Knowledge brokers, entrepreneurs and markets

This paper expands the discussion of knowledge brokerage by connecting it to long-standing debates within the social sciences about the effective transmission of scientifically produced knowledge into the worlds of policy and practice. This longer-term perspective raises some different questions about intermediary roles which are then tested against quantitative data on the attitudes of the producers of social science knowledge and some in-depth qualitative information about the use of social science knowledge by a select number of policy actors. The paper concludes with some proposals for the reconceptualisation of knowledge brokerage as one set of contributions within a larger knowledge market.</jats:p

Identifying Knowledge Brokers in Enterprise Social Media

Knowledge brokers act as a bridge between people and issues; they facilitate knowledge creation and sharing, and connect communities of practice. The extant literature has focused mostly on roles and network positions of knowledge brokers. This paper adds communicative actions to identifying these important actors. In the present study we develop and propose a method to identify knowledge brokering communication in an enterprise social media (ESM) platform. We posit that active knowledge brokers can be identified based on their generic social media communication. We use a large data set containing 124,015 messages among employees, and their network positions by social network analysis to identify knowledge brokers, and further analyze a sample of the communication content qualitatively. We argue that better understanding of the identification of knowledge brokering communication in a collaboration network can benefit employee assignments and help develop communication practices in ESM, leading to improved knowledge sharing and creation

Exploring knowledge broker influences on sharing and use of evidence for health policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries

Little is known about how intermediaries called knowledge brokers work in low- and middle-income countries to help move evidence into policy and practice to improve health outcomes. The aim of this PhD research project was to understand how knowledge brokers spread and mobilize evidence in multiple countries and regions in the context of an internationally funded global health program. It used case studies, interviews, and surveys of nearly 600 health professionals in more than 65 countries. Findings show knowledge brokers participating in the studies worked in multiple roles in healthcare systems and used their professional networks to help policymakers, healthcare providers, and others adapt evidence for use in the local context. They exhibited attributes such as a “can-do” spirit to overcome challenges in implementing evidence. Knowledge brokers were influenced in selecting evidence by having an opportunity to share it during their professional duties, how well the evidence fit their professional role, successes in using the evidence in similar contexts, and how well it fit the healthcare decision-making culture of the country. Initiatives to increase evidence uptake should consider strengthening the use of knowledge brokers in health organizations and building their capacity to work across countries and regions

Dynamics of biosciences regulation and opportunities for biosciences innovation in Africa: Exploring regulatory policy brokering

Knowledge brokering has been explored in the innovation literature to understand how different innovation tasks are organised toward technological development. This paper reflects upon the role of different organisations as knowledge brokers in regulatory policy processes towards putting biosciences research into use. It identifies a practical function-based typology that describes four categories of policy brokers who perform different tasks, with the potential to impact biosciences regulatory policy change. The paper concludes with a brief exploration of how policy can support the different functions of regulatory policy brokerage to enhance the translation of biosciences research into use for the benefit of the poor. Using regulatory policy-making in Kenya as an example, it contributes to growing scholarship that seeks to link knowledge emanating from research with policy-making and economic development, particularly in an African context.Biosciences, Biotechnology Regulation, Knowledge Brokers, Policy Brokering, Africa, Kenya

Knowledge Brokers in Crisis : Public Communication of Science During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Knowledge brokers are among the main channels of communication between scientists and the public and a key element to establishing a relation of trust between the two. But translating knowledge from the scientific community to a wider audience presents several difficulties, which can be accentuated in times of crisis. In this paper we study some of the problems that knowledge brokers face when communicating in times of crisis. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we collected interviews with Italian experts that played a major role as knowledge brokers in the local media. We asked them questions about five main topics: the features and role of science communicators; the use of language in communicating science; the importance of the relation of trust with the public; the peculiarity of communicating in a context of emergency; the problem of disagreement among experts, and its public perception and communication. The goal of this paper is to understand, through the words of knowledge brokers themselves, what they consider as best practices (and obstacles) to create trust between scientists and the public. Our empirical work can inform normative accounts of what knowledge brokering should be about.Peer reviewe

What works for knowledge brokers? Assessing the communication challenge of linking research to policy.

Across universities and other research institutions, knowledge brokers play an important role in linking researchers to potential users of their research. Reporting on a recent survey, Sandra Messenger and Sarah Foxen highlight the challenges that knowledge brokers face and how, as a community of experts, open conversations on communication strategies may help stimulate personal reflection and input into individual and collective approaches to widening researcher awareness of policy engagement opportunities

Enabling Knowledge Broker Analysis through Actor Clusters in Organizational Structures in Enterprise Social Media

Knowledge brokers serve as facilitators of knowledge sharing. The extant literature calls for nuanced analyses of different organizational structures as the spaces knowledge brokers operate in. Our interest lies in formal, semiformal, and informal organizational network structures and in how knowledge brokers are positioned in them. In this paper, we outline a collaborative analysis method, with researchers from different disciplines working together in data sprints. The benefit of this process is that it enables analyzing large organizational networks with deep insights. Amplifying social network analysis with field knowledge offers a deeper understanding of the connections in the network. This paper describes the analysis process and proposes interdisciplinary data processing techniques. We applied the proposed method using an extensive empirical data set that includes intraorganizational social media interactions between employees in a global organization. Our analysis transforms enterprise social media data into a network model that describes an organization’s social structure