Improving evidence use: a systematic scoping review of local models of knowledge mobilisation

While the rhetoric of evidence-based policymaking and practice is pervasive and persuasive, the extent to which either have been achieved is contested. Both require effective approaches to research-based knowledge mobilisation, particularly at the local level where context specificities undermine generic 'what works' claims. There has been limited research on how local processes of knowledge mobilisation happen, the practices they employ and why, and what can be learned from them.

We undertook a systematic scoping review of local models of knowledge mobilisation to address these gaps in process understanding. Keywords associated with knowledge mobilisation at the local level were identified, and searches of two international databases were conducted in May 2023.

Our review identifies three key features of knowledge mobilisation at the local level: it is relational; it involves the integration of different forms of knowledge; and it recognises the need for approaches to knowledge mobilisation to be tailored to local contexts, culture and capacity for evidence use by individuals and organisations, and at system level. Our findings advance understanding of how knowledge mobilisation at the local level can be designed to improve evidence utilisation in policy and practice.

The paper highlights important gaps in current knowledge - namely a lack of understanding of the informal processes that underpin local knowledge mobilisation and of the determinants of demand for and the impacts of mobilising evidence - and it suggests ways in which future research might address these.