[Our Knowledge Mobilization]

This page of the UBC Edgeworth Lab describes the UBC-Psychometric Research Initiative’s Knowledge Mobilization (Kmb) and dissemination efforts.

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 [invited addresses & webinars], [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

Major Funding Initiatives

Current 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), the UBC Psychometric Research Initiative is funded by the Canada Research Chairs Program (CRCP) of the Government of Canada. The Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Psychometrics and Measurement was awarded by the CRCP to Professor Zumbo in 2020, administered through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). It is tenable for seven years, 2020-2027, and 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.

Research Summary. How accurately do tests measure results in multicultural societies—and how fair are they? These are two questions at the heart of research by Dr. Bruno Zumbo, Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Psychometrics and Measurement.

Zumbo is particularly interested in equity and fairness at the nexus of data science, digital innovation, and social justice. He focuses on the social context of test fairness and data science methods for examining fairness. Using survey and test data, he is developing and refining new theories and methods that make the most of multivariate statistics and computational technology advances. Ultimately, his goal is to ensure that measurement practices in education and the social sciences embrace test-takers diversity and the many ways of being human in Canada’s contemporary multicultural society.

Past Funding

From 2015 to the spring of 2024, the UBC-Psychometric Research Initiative was largely funded by the UBC Paragon Research partnership, which was led since its inception by Professor Zumbo in his role as the Paragon UBC Professor in Psychometrics and Measurement. In 2021, at the launch of the second agreement,  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 (a subsidiary of UBC at the time) was acquired by Prometric Canada, whose parent company is Prometric LLC.