PhD student activities - SWEAH Impact

Checklist for self-evaluation of integrated knowledge translation within research on ageing and health

Take the opportunity to try our self-evaluation checklist, learn more about integrated knowledge translation through meaningful and goal-oriented collaboration with actors outside academia.

Target group: All PhD students affiliated with SWEAH - who are curious about how to develop their approaches and activities to collaboration with actors outside academia are welcome to join.

To bridge the gap between research and practice in ageing and health, efforts to enhance the transfer of knowledge between researchers and actors outside academia have become increasingly important. Integrated Knowledge Translation (IKT) refers to all activities where researchers and actors from civil society, the public and the private sector collaborate to exchange, create and utilize knowledge to increase the practical use of research results in policy and practice. 

Integrated knowledge translation is based on the idea that research results are most likely to be used when actors outside the academia are engaged from the beginning of research and innovation projects as actual or intended users of their results. An effective strategy for integrated knowledge translation does not start with the communication and implementation of research results at the end of a research project, but with the development of common research interests, research and innovation projects and then continues throughout the research process.

The self-evaluation checklist is being developed to create a practical tool for raising awareness of contextual peculiarities, prioritizing change activities, and facilitating the development of an effective strategy for integrated knowledge translation. It is being developed to be a basis for learning evaluation and to be used for collegial learning. A Swedish version of the checklist was developed by four research centers within the research program UserAge: Understanding User Participation in Research on Ageing and Health. 

The self-evaluation checklist covers seven elements of questions. It is based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework for Knowledge Translation on Ageing and Health (WHO 2012; Ellen et al. 2017). 

The seven elements are described under the respective part of the self-evaluation checklist itself. Each element consists of questions to reflect on and opportunities to make suggestions for change activities that you plan to carry out – an action plan.