
This page of the UBC Edgeworth Lab describes the Knowledge Mobilization (Kmb) and dissemination efforts of the UBC-Psychometric Research Initiative.
I. Knowledge Mobilization
How do we think about knowledge mobilization? As noted by Canadian granting agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), “knowledge mobilization is an umbrella term encompassing a wide range of activities relating to the production and use of research results, including knowledge synthesis, dissemination, transfer, exchange, and co-creation or co-production by researchers and knowledge users (SSHRC, 2022).”
In addition to the [publications and scholarly activities], our knowledge mobilization efforts include freely available [webinars and invited addresses], [monographs and research reports], and extensive resources we have made available on special topics like the impact of and how to correct for [survey nonparticipation (unit nonresponse)].
Webinar Series – all of the webinars and learning opportunities on our YouTube channel are freely available as part of the UBC-Psychometric Research Initiative’s knowledge mobilization efforts to maximize the impact of the research for the benefit of improved psychometric research and practice, testing, assessment, and survey design globally.
Monographs, research reports, and hard-to-find publications: click here to view
Nonparticipation (Unit Nonresponse) In Surveys: A Practitioner’s’ Guide to the Conceptualization, Impact of, and Adjustment for Unit Nonresponse: click here to view
II. Funding
In addition to standard operating research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), there are two significant funders.
1. The primary funding is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Psychometrics and Measurement awarded to Professor Zumbo in 2020 by the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) of the Government of Canada. This Tier 1 CRC is administered through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and is tenable for seven years, 2020-2027, renewable once. The central theme of Prof. Zumbo’s Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Psychometrics and Measurement is Equity and Fairness at the Nexus of Data Science, Digital Innovation, and Social Justice— please see this brief video to learn more about his motivation for this line of research, feel free to his YouTube channel.
2. Also, starting in 2015, the UBC-Psychometric Research Initiative has been partly funded by the UBC Paragon Research partnership led since its inception by Professor Zumbo in his role as the Paragon UBC Professor in Psychometrics and Measurement. In 2021 this groundbreaking 9-year partnership (2015-2024), its impact to date, and plans for the final stage were described in the video Impact of the Paragon UBC Professorship and the UBC-Paragon Partnership and the accompanying report titled Looking Back, Looking Ahead: Outcomes, Impacts, and Next Steps.
In the spring of 2021, Paragon Testing Enterprises (at the time, a subsidiary of UBC) was acquired by Prometric Canada, whose parent company is Prometric LLC.