It is now more than a year since a group of knowledge practitioners from all over the world and from a range of sectors gathered in Ontario, Canada, for the first K* conference. (I wrote about the conference and the K* concept in the very first Community News in May last year.) Experts in the fields of knowledge brokering, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, knowledge exchange, knowledge translation, knowledge mobilisation and others met to find common ground on the scope of the knowledge field and to find ways to avoid its fragmentation and the duplication of resources.

In 2010, the DRUSSA partners did a scoping study that served to inform the nature of the programme as it stands today. The Communicating Research for Utilisation scoping report defined research communication as follows:

Very early on in my career as a journalist, I discovered the value of making friends with the boss’s secretary and the switchboard operator. That is the grail along which you will have your calls put through and the appointment book opened. The same principle can hold true when trying to bring your research to the attention of policymakers.