DEFEND Integrated Knowledge Transfer Awards 2019

The DEFEND project held its first Integrated Knowledge Transfer (iKT) Awards competition in July 2019. The awards form part of the DEFEND iKT plan, which focuses on guaranteeing the impact of DEFEND by ensuring that the knowledge gained during the project is shared and utilised to its fullest extent.

‘What is Integrated Knowledge Transfer?’

iKT is an ongoing, dynamic, two-way interaction between the DEFEND partners and knowledge users. iKT is often described as ‘partnerships between those who produce research and those who use it’.

‘Who is a knowledge user?’

Knowledge users are those who will be using DEFEND research outputs. They could be veterinarians, policy makers, farmers, governments or pharmaceutical companies to name but a few.

iKT Awards 2019

Partners involved with the DEFEND project were invited to apply for an iKT award, of €1000 to undertake a knowledge transfer activity.

Applications were invited for activities that focused on one or more of the following criteria;

• Ensuring relevance of the DEFEND research
• Facilitating the use of DEFEND knowledge
• Assessing barriers to using DEFEND knowledge
• Monitoring DEFEND knowledge use

The DEFEND Project Support Team was delighted to receive several applications from partners for the awards. The applications were assessed by the DEFEND Steering Committee against a specific set of criteria and were ranked to give the overall winners.

Due to the high quality of the applications and their relevance to the DEFEND project, three of the applications were chosen to each receive €1000 towards their proposed activity.

Successful applications

• Scientific Veterinary Institute Novi Sad (NIV-NS), Serbia – for attendance at the 13th annual conference of EPIZONE, Berlin, 26-28 August 2019
• Veterinary Specialist Institute Kraljevo (VSI-Kraljevo), Serbia – for attendance at the 13th annual conference of EPIZONE, Berlin, 26-28 August 2019
• Institutul de Diagnosti si Sanatate Animalia (IDAH), Romania – for attendance at the 13th Applied Biosafety Meeting, University of Berne, Switzerland, 22-23 August 2019

Many congratulations to the successful applicants. We wish them every success with their activities and we will be following up with them about their activities in future DEFEND newsletters.