Being a Knowledge Transfer Fellow

Akile Ahmet hs recently joined Celebyouth as a knowledge transfer fellow, her role is ultimately transferring the knowledge created from the research to the widest audience possible, something we’ve already begun through our mythbusting website. In this post she talks more about her job.

Why do we need to do Knowledge Transfer?

I came into academia to make an impact, and have worked on several research projects but it has become apparent to me that academic research is more often than not inaccessible. The usual output journal articles are only accessible by other academics and researchers. But what about other key organisations and people in the field of your research – schools, think tanks, policy makers, teachers, NGOs? Where can they find you and your research?

It’s now easier than ever to make our research count. The wealth of digital platforms to spread the word is incredible. As academics we need websites for our research, we need Twitter followers, blogs etc. We need to reach out to a wider audience. I recently attended an event where James Nazroo spoke he said it is not the case that we are not reaching out to wider audiences but the fact that they do not like what our research is saying. This may be the case for some, but not all.

The great thing about CelebYouth is that it reaches out beyond the university. We hope that its impacts will be felt throughout schools via Personal, Social and Health Educations lessons, careers education, and youth work. We also hope that think tanks such as the Runnymede Trust will find our findings useful. The key thing is for us to find ways that support the ‘transfer’ of our findings.

As knowledge transfer fellow I aim to do the following:

Connecting to Practioners

This will involve blogging, maintaining our website, and developing our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. I will also build links with relevant UK organisations and seek out key stakeholders and discuss the CelebYouth work with them. I want to learn from them what they make of the findings.

Developing Materials 

Working with Kim and Heather, I want to increase and expand our resources on the Celeb Youth Mythbusting website. Some ideas I have for how this can be done are through creating summary posters, online tool kits, and TrueTube videos.

Marketing findings

I will deliver workshops within organisations like the Media Education Association and find other ways of publicising our resources and materials.

Alongside all of this we want other people to get involved! If you’d be interested in writing for our blog (or doing a blog swap), hosting a workshop or just simply talking through ideas with us then do get in touch with me at akile.ahmet@brunel.ac.uk.