Knowledge Brokering

Knowledge Brokers are the people that link organizations, networks, and people to further the goals of Communities of Practice (CoP), as well as advance the goals and objectives of the partners across the SHRTN Collaborative. With sufficient resources, Knowledge Brokers are able to identify and capture knowledge, facilitate the translation of knowledge, make knowledge accessible, and identify the need for new knowledge.

Through these means, Knowledge Brokers can facilitate:

• A mutual understanding of goals and cultures.
• Collaboration with end users to identify issues and problems.
• The identification, access, assessment, and translation of research evidence into policy and practice.

Knowledge Brokers, working in partnership with CoP members and leads, support the development of a robust and sustainable community of practice as well as set conditions that foster knowledge transfer and exchange. This can involve:

• Developing core working groups of key stakeholders.
• Educating core working groups and network members.
• Facilitating CoP vision, goals, and objectives.
• Facilitating the development of annual work plans.
• Fostering partnerships.
• Coordinating regular communications with CoP members.
• Linking users and creators of knowledge, acting as intermediaries.
• Identifying technology needs.

Knowledge brokers, in addition to supporting CoPs, play a key role within the broader SHRTN network. They do this by:

• Integrating the ideas and activities of the CoPs with the other network components to reduce duplication and foster collaboration.
• Linking CoP leads and other key network members with the best available knowledge transfer, translation, resources, and tools.
• Coordinating, planning, and developing various net-work processes, polices, and reporting structures.