BHI Knowledge Mobilization Award Call for Nominations

Nomination deadline: End of day, May 1, 2026

Extended deadline: End of day, May 8, 2026

Award amount: $1000 CAD

The BHI Knowledge Mobilization Award celebrates outstanding individuals and teams who are advancing meaningful co-production and high-impact knowledge mobilization. This award recognizes the people and teams who go beyond traditional dissemination to ensure their BHI-funded research reaches, resonates with, and makes a difference for academic, clinical, knowledge user and patient audiences alike.

BHI researchers, team members, and staff are invited to nominate a colleague or team whose work exemplifies excellence in co-production and impactful knowledge mobilization.

Background

BHI is committed to designing and doing research with the people, communities, and organizations who can use it and stand to benefit from it. By embedding co-production and knowledge mobilization throughout our work, we help ensure that research findings inform clinical care, shape health systems, and build understanding among knowledge users and target populations, ultimately improving brain-heart health for people in Canada and beyond.

Co-production and knowledge mobilization are embedded throughout the BHI to: 

• Ensure the research addresses real-world priorities and problems identified by knowledge users, 
• Increase the likelihood that research findings are used in practice, policy, and programs, 
• Make research more relevant and useful by involving knowledge users throughout the research process,
• Build strong, lasting partnerships between researchers and knowledge users, 
• Maximize the potential for research to improve outcomes for people living with brain-heart conditions.

Co-production means doing research with the people who will use it and benefit from it. At the BHI, we partner with people early and often, including those from historically underserved or marginalized communities, to tackle real-world problems and produce answers that are useful to them. Some organizations refer to this approach as integrated knowledge translation. 

Knowledge mobilization is about making sure the research is used. It involves sharing research findings in clear, practical ways and formats that reach the people who can use them, whether that's healthcare providers, policymakers, patients, or community organizations, to help inform decisions about practice, programs, and policy in ways that benefit all people and communities. Some organizations refer to this as knowledge translation. 

Knowledge users are people and organizations who will use the research findings to make informed decisions and who may benefit from or be affected by research findings. This includes Indigenous leaders and communities, patients and families, healthcare professionals, community-based organizations, health charities, health system leaders, policymakers, and private-sector organizations. 

The BHI is committed to engaging a diverse range of knowledge users and perspectives to make sure our research reflects and addresses the needs of all communities.

BHI Knowledge Mobilization Award and its Evaluation

This Award recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts to integrate, advance, and strengthen co-production and knowledge mobilization within their BHI-funded project. 

Focus Areas for Evaluation:

• Engagement: Demonstrated meaningful engagement with knowledge users.
• Innovation: Originality and creativity in approaches, methods, and products used to share knowledge and support its use.
• Targeted Outreach: Strategic and effective communication/outreach that makes research findings accessible and actionable for various target groups
• Impact:  Where appropriate and aligned with the project’s stage in the lifecycle, evidence of research uptake, influence, or real-world impact. For projects earlier in development, clear demonstration of progress toward impact (e.g., engagement with knowledge users, established or building partnerships, dissemination activities, or implementation planning) will also be recognized and valued.

BHI members may self-nominate or nominate a colleague, team member, or team. Knowledge users are also encouraged to nominate a BHI individual or team. We encourage nominations from all research areas and approaches, including but not limited to basic science, clinical research, population health, and participatory research, and from project leads, co-leads, and other team members. Eligible nominees include trainees, research staff, and patient or community partners who have made meaningful contributions to co-production and knowledge mobilization within any completed or ongoing BHI-funded project.

Nominations will be reviewed and awards decided by members of the BHI Patient Engagement and Knowledge Mobilization Advisory Committee. Committee members bring a range of perspectives as researchers, trainees, patient partners, and other knowledge user partners.