KT Canada Summer Institute: Closing the gap between research and its use

25 June 2025

Three panellists, Clayon Hamilton, Bev Holmes, and Maoliosa Donald, sit at a long table with microphones in front of a large painted mural of a river and forest at sunset. Bev is speaking with animated hand gestures, while the other two listen. Several audience members are visible from behind, seated and facing the panel.

Vancouver played host to Knowledge Translation (KT) Canada’s Summer Institute for the first time from June 17-19.

A young man stands beside a research poster, presenting his work to three attendees. The attendees, two women and one man, listen closely and smile as he explains. The setting appears to be an academic or conference space with other posters and participants in the background. — Photo: Sharing knowledge in action, a participant discusses his research findings during the poster session at the 2025 KT Canada Summer Institute.

Over three days, top experts and learners from BC and across Canada came together to explore how to better translate health research into action.

KT, also known as knowledge mobilization, research to action, and knowledge exchange, uses health research to improve health. KT activities aim to close the gap between research and implementation by improving the use of research evidence in practice, policy, and further research.

This year’s Summer Institute theme, KT and learning health systems, focused on the need for expertise in applying knowledge to real-world settings. Learning health systems capture data from practice, generate knowledge from the data, and put the knowledge back into practice to improve care. In this way, they support the practice of KT – supporting work in bridging the gap between evidence creation and its use.

As co-hosts of this year’s event, Health Research BC supported many BC-based trainees to attend. This included Kelcey Bland, a clinical exercise physiologist and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of British Columbia.

“Attending the KT Canada Summer Institute has been an incredibly valuable learning and networking experience,” says Kelcey. “I feel like I have a deeper understanding of KT and implementation science and how to strengthen my current and future research. I am leaving the Institute with new skills, research ideas, future collaborators, and friends.”

By co-hosting this national event, Health Research BC and the BC SUPPORT Unit are helping to turn knowledge into action for better health outcomes. Event partners included KT Canada, Simon Fraser University’s Knowledge Mobilization Hub, UBC’s Knowledge Exchange Unit, the Knowledge Translation Program at Unity Health Toronto and the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit.

Program highlights

Monica Mamut stands at a podium, speaking during a session at the 2025 KT Canada Summer Institute. She is giving a presentation titled “There and Back Again++,” which is projected on a large screen behind her. The slide includes a graphic of arrows labeled with research areas such as “Spinal Cord Research,” “Dementia Strategy,” and “Primary Care,” alongside the logos of Michael Smith Health Research BC, the BC SUPPORT Unit, and SPOR (Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research). Another speaker is seated at the panel table in front of the audience. A peaceful landscape painting serves as a backdrop. — Photo: Monica Mamut speaks about KT and learning health systems.

Linda Li, Scientific Director of the BC SUPPORT Unit and Chair of the planning committee for the event, opened the event by encouraging attendees to embrace the opportunity to learn from both KT experts and each other, build their networks with like-minded KT people, and have fun.
Kerry Kuluski from the Institute for Better Health and Monica Mamut, Unit Director for the BC SUPPORT Unit, spoke about how KT and learning health systems overlap and where they are different. They presented about embedding research in a learning health system through deep, ongoing, meaningful partnerships with patients, their families and caregivers, clinicians, service providers, and policy-makers.
Bev Holmes, Health Research BC President and CEO, joined a career panel, where experts shared how KT training has shaped their work.
Trainees presented their research projects, spanning diverse health topics, including: best practices for skin-to-skin contact for extremely preterm infants; improving patient flow in hospitals; and using rapid reviews to bridge the evidence-to-decision-making gap in virtual health.