1 The Metropolis Project: 12 Years On What Have We Learned About Knowledge Transfer/Mobilization? Annual Conference and Technology Awards Ceremony of the Federal Partners in Technology June 17-18, 2009 Ottawa Presented by: John Biles Director, Partnerships and Knowledge Transfer

2 Purpose of Presentation Provide a quick overview of Metropolis Describe its knowledge transfer/mobilization mandate and approaches

3 What is Metropolis?

4 History Conceived in 1992/93 by Meyer Burstein and Demetrios Papademetriou at OECD SOPEMI Meetings Funding secured for Canadian portion of the project in 1995 Initial call for centre proposals in 1996 Three centres, became four, and then five Three five-year funding phases (1996/7-2002; ; )

5 Mandate

6 Knowledge Transfer/Mobilization Knowledge Transfer has always been a component of the project, but in Phase III it has been given a more central role. Rather than an end of process activity, it has now become the frame through which we view the entire range of activities within Metropolis Responsibilities for the Centres, the Secretariat AND the Federal Consortium are articulated for each element in the knowledge transfer spectrum In addition to strategies that combine face-to-face interactions, publications and web-based electronic knowledge transfer, more sophisticated typologies of target audiences (especially among the federal partners) have been developed

7 KT/KM (cont.)

8 Building Social Capital is KT/KM Network The networks that the Metropolis Project have created over time are, “the strongest contribution flowing from Metropolis funding” adding that the key value-added element of the Metropolis Secretariat is the support for networks. The SSHRC Mid-Term Review Committee states that these networks have helped establish a culture of collaboration among the diverse actors interested or involved in immigration issues CIC Internal Review found that Metropolis improves relationships between various immigration stakeholders (such as local NGOs, local government partners and academics), thus promoting greater co-operation, information- sharing and more strategically targeted problem-solving 63% of CIC web survey respondents said that one of the three most important functions of Metropolis is to provide links between the Government of Canada, academics (and others) Almost half of interviewees at CIC and Metropolis indicated that the Project improves partnerships with other departments, other countries and also municipalities and NGOs

Conclusions Knowledge transfer/mobilization can’t be simply an end result, it must be integral to the logic model from end to end. Reinforcing strategies of face-to-face, hard copy and virtual KT/KM strategies are vital. Social capital is a, perhaps the most, important means to pursue KT/KM objectives. 9