Knowledge Translation, Dissemination, and Utilization

Policymakers, practitioners, and consumers often search for the most up-to-date knowledge to improve lives. Effective knowledge translation requires expertise that begins with refining the questions that specific audiences need answered, and finding relevant research studies that answer those questions. The process then moves to translating evidence into user-friendly products customized for specific audiences, and providing technical support to apply the information to make individual, practitioner, and systems change.

AIR begins this process with stakeholder engagement (providers and consumers), using formative research to learn about the questions they want answered and the best way to engage, inform, and reach users. AIR then conducts systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses to find relevant research studies and other literature that answer their questions.

From a synthesis of the findings, our knowledge transfer and communication experts create online and print products including social media that communicate the results and disseminate them through conferences and trainings, videos, websites, social media, and virtual events to specific audiences.

AIR incorporates strategies including cultural and linguistic competence, varied literacy levels, and adaptive formats for those with disabilities, to reach specific audiences. Training, technical assistance, and coaching—either online or in person—often support users in applying knowledge to make desired changes.

Contact
Image of Kathleen Murphy

Kathleen Murphy

Managing Researcher

Featured AIR Work

Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research (KTDRR)

AIR’s Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research is the primary knowledge translation resource funded by National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), serving other NIDILRR-funded researchers, developers, and knowledge translation brokers. Working together, these grantees promote the health and function of people with disabilities, their access to technology and full participation in community and economic life.

KTDRR supports the grantees’ efforts to aggregate and vet relevant research for their stakeholders. Specifically, the center offers a variety of training, dissemination, utilization and technical assistance activities for NIDILRR grantees to develop systematic reviews and other high-quality syntheses of research, and then to translate, promote, and measure their effective use.

Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (MSKTC)

The goal of the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center, funded by NIDILRR, is to improve services for people with spinal cord, traumatic brain, and burn injuries. Using a knowledge translation model, MSKTC works with NIDILRR-funded grantees to ensure that research into living with these types of injuries is relevant and accessible to people with disabilities and their families, as well as researchers, practitioners, clinicians, policymakers, and advocates.

MSKTC generates research-based information resources for all stakeholders and makes them available on the MSKTC website. The project is a partnership of AIR, Inova Health System, George Mason University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the American Association of People with Disabilities.

LAC (Latin America and Caribbean) Reads Capacity Program

While a growing global evidence base exists about what works in early grade reading (particularly in English), it is unclear whether similar findings can be extrapolated to the Latin America and the Caribbean region. AIR operates the USAID-funded LAC Reads Capacity Program to increase the impact, scale, and sustainability of early grade reading interventions in the region. AIR works with nine partner organizations in eight countries within the Latin America and Caribbean region to implement the project.

As a foundation for this program’s work and that of other stakeholders in the field, AIR specialists conducted a systematic evidence review on early grade reading in this region from 1995-2015 to identify development programs likely to have positive effects on early grade reading outcomes. Policymakers, researchers, educators, and funders can use this review to improve reading outcomes for young learners.

Related Work

Measurements for Accountability to All People in Policy Solutions (Equity MAAPPS)

Opioid settlement dollars, cannabis tax revenue, and other funding streams have provided an opportunity for some states to consider different ways of investing in solutions to address the overdose crisis and responses to the needs of their communities. The project introduces the MAAPPS process, which seeks to support states in ...
Little engineers

Advancing the Long-Term Potential of Fundamental STEM Education Research: The NSF ECR Hub

This five-year resource center is a partnership with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to extend the reach of existing NSF investments and build career opportunities related to fundamental STEM education research.
Teacher and students in classroom

Promoting Equity Funding for Schools Facing Adverse Health Circumstances

Existing research reveals that many school sites face environmental and health problems that affect education outcomes. This project, funded by the AIR Equity Initiative, will implement a series of coordinated activities to highlight health conditions that negatively impact achievement in schools attended primarily by children of color. ...
Teacher and student high-fiving

PreK–12 Research on Education Strategies to Advance Recovery and Turnaround (RESTART) Network

In the wake of the pandemic, there is an urgent need to address national disruptions in student achievement and help educators boost student engagement, particularly among students from marginalized groups and among those who struggled prior to the pandemic. The PreK–12 Research on Education Strategies to Advance Recovery and Turnaround ...
Little girl makes graduating grandfather laugh

Alaska Adult Education Content Standards

The intent of contemporary standards-based education reform is to ensure that learners have access to instruction that supports them in developing the skills necessary for success. While the K–12 standards provide a strong foundation, adult learners need specific knowledge and skills to meet the demands of postsecondary training and employment ...
Illustration of Kathleen Murphy

Meet the Expert: Kathleen Murphy

03 Nov 2021
Kathleen Murphy, Ph.D., is a principal investigator for AIR’s Center on Knowledge Translation for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. She also directs a research portfolio of surveys and training related to cancer and employment in collaboration with the Southwest Americans with Disabilities Act Center. Dr. Murphy is a former vice president ...

People with Lived(-ing) Experience as Researchers (PLER) Board - A National Research Collaboration

Research designed with people who use drugs in mind should be developed side-by-side with, and even led by, people who use drugs; however the research enterprise has systemic problems. To address this challenge, AIR’s Center for Addiction Research and Effective Solutions (AIR CARES) and the National Harm Reduction Coalition (NHRC) ...
Botswana Political Map

Development of a National Remediation and Enrichment Program for Botswana’s Schools

The Government of Botswana is committed to helping all students to reach their full potential in both academic and non-academic areas. To fulfill that goal, the country is introducing a national remediation and enrichment program in all its primary and secondary schools. With funding from the United Nations Children’s Fund ...
Hard-of-hearing businessman and colleague

Industry-Consumer Alliance for Accessible Technology (ICAAT)

ICAAT is an online program that seeks to improve accessible technology for people who are Deaf or have hearing loss by putting them at the center of product design and development. ICAAT provides an easy, structured way for industry and consumers to connect, work together, and inspire better technology from ...