Amy Lemay (00:00):
I'm looking for patterns in KTT how research about pests and other aspects of important to IPM were shared and disseminated. And I've constructed what I call KTT history for IPM, how KTT and IPM has evolved over the past 40 years. And so the next step is to dig deeper into this data, to identify these critical success factors, these aspects of KTT that seemed to be consistent over the past 40 years.

Graeme (00:32):
You're listening to the Why & How Podcast produced by the Ontario Agricultural College of the University of Guelph, where we look to answer big questions in agriculture, food and the environment through casual conversations rooted in research.

Graeme (00:49):
Hey Jordan, how's it going?

Jordan (00:50):
Hey Graeme. Pretty good. How are you?

Graeme (00:52):
Another great episode under the belt. So feeling good.

Jordan (00:54):
Yeah. Absolutely. So we had an awesome guest with us today. Amy Lemay. Why don't you tell me a little bit more about Amy?

Graeme (01:01):
Yeah. She researches knowledge transfer and translation for the University of Guelph's Plant Agriculture department. And she was with us talking about a project that she ran through the Agri Food Innovation Alliance, which was a partnership between OMAFRA, or the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs, and the University of Guelph, and the project was looking at how integrated pest management was disseminated to farmers and everyone else out there.

Jordan (01:32):
Yeah, for sure. I would say it was a really cool episode. Amy has some really cool insights and background knowledge. She has both the integrative pest management background and she is an alumnus of the University of Guelph, but then she has also studied the social science and humans and how people better understand science. So it was really cool to talk about all those things. So what was one of your highlights from the episode today?

Graeme (01:56):
Oh, I mean, basically the whole episode was a highlight because I didn't even know this was a field before looking into this. So it's pretty cool to see that there are people out there researching knowledge transfer and translation.

Jordan (02:08):
Yeah, for sure. So I think without further ado, we might as well get back into the episode.

Graeme (02:12):
All right.

Graeme (02:13):
How are you, Amy?

Amy Lemay (02:14):
I'm good, thanks.

Graeme (02:15):
So what is the research of knowledge transfer and translation?

Amy Lemay (02:19):
So maybe I'll start with describing or explaining what knowledge transfer and translation is, and we typically use the short form KTT when we talk about knowledge translation and transfer. It's also known as knowledge mobilization, and it's about sharing the results of research to make sure that the research gets used and has impacts and benefits. It's how science and research actually have benefits to society. KTT supports informed, evidence-based decisions and it's how science is shared, communicated beyond scientific papers and conferences. The pandemic is a great example of KTT in action. We're seeing firsthand how new scientific knowledge is being shared and disseminated to make some really important decisions and this How & Why podcast is actually an example of KTT.

Graeme (03:09):
All right. Look at that.

Amy Lemay (03:10):
Yep.

Graeme (03:11):
Me and Jordan are members of the KTT employment sector, I guess.

Amy Lemay (03:16):
Exactly. Yep. So as I've explained KTT, KTT research is how we study how and why, or why not, science and research are shared and disseminated and adopted and used. KTT researchers study all the different ways that this happens, who does it and why, and in many different fields of research. We also study how KTT can be improved to make sure that research has impacts and benefits. How research can be used in different types of decision-making, anything from deciding to make investments in funding, research, developing new policies, new programs, or practices such as how to manage pests and crops.

Graeme (04:00):
In this particular study, you were studying integrated pest management. Could you tell us what that is?

Amy Lemay (04:06):
Sure. So integrated pest management, or IPM, lots of acronyms here, is a type of sustainable agricultural practice that minimizes crop damage from pests, which include insects, diseases and weeds, and also minimizes the risks to people in the environment. So IPM involves managing an agri ecosystem to keep pests from becoming a problem. This means growing healthy crops that can withstand damage. The focus of IPM is on preventing pests and/or damage by using a combination of strategies such as biological control, modifying habitats, cultural practices, and growing resistant varieties. The use of pesticides is limited in integrated pest management to cases where there's a risk of economic losses to the crop by pest. So the key to integrated pest management is about keeping pest damage below an economic level. It means you're not trying to eradicate all pests in the field, just enough to make sure that you don't have economic losses. To do that, you have to know what pests are there, how many there are on your plants, and that includes scouting and monitoring as a key part of integrated pest management.

Amy Lemay (05:26):
So integrated pest management uses an integrated approach that includes biological control, which is the use of natural enemies or sometimes they're called beneficials, which are predators, parasites, pathogens and competitors, to reduce pest populations and damage. Most pests have several natural enemies. Then there's cultural methods, which reduce pest infestations or reduce pest reproduction or the survival of the pest or how they disperse through the field such as managing your irrigation practices. Because if you water your crops too much, you can increase the potential of diseases and weeds. We also use mechanical methods in integrated pest management that kill pests or keep them out of the field or make it a very unpleasant place to be. So you can use traps to trap pests or mulches from reducing weeds.

Amy Lemay (06:26):
And the final piece of integrated pest management is chemical methods or pesticides, which are used only when we reach these economic thresholds and when these other non-chemical methods don't work, and pesticide use in this case is very targeted and specific and timed. So these four methods, biological control, cultural, mechanical, and pesticides or chemical, are all integrated into a single pro practice called integrated pest management.

Graeme (06:59):
Okay. Great. So yeah, like an example would be using lady bugs to eat aphids and what not and crop rotations and stuff?

Amy Lemay (07:08):
Yes. Exactly. Yes. Crop rotation is a cultural method and lady bugs is a bio control method.

Graeme (07:10):
And it all falls under the IPM label?

Amy Lemay (07:16):
Yes. Yep.

Graeme (07:17):
So you were studying the KTT of IPM. How do you go about something like that?

Amy Lemay (07:24):
So in my research, I'm interested in understanding the role that KTT plays in the adoption of integrated pest management. So I should back up a little bit maybe and say IPM is a science-based practice. It involves a lot of research. You need to understand the pest biology, its behavior and the damage it causes. You need to know crop development. You need to understand the natural enemies, and then you need to understand how they all interact, the crop and the pest and the beneficials interact. You need to know about your the properties of your agro ecosystem, like weather patterns and soil conditions, and then you need to develop these non-chemical and chemical methods. So there's a lot of research that goes into developing IPM programs, and so that's where the KTT piece comes in. And so I was interested in understanding how KTT is involved in the adoption of integrated pest management.

Amy Lemay (08:28):
Now, IPM is one of the most widely adopted sustainable agricultural practices, or what's called beneficial management practices, also known as BMPs. So integrated pest management was first introduced in Ontario in the 1970s. So it's been practiced for almost 50 years, and almost every crop grown in Ontario has some kind of IPM program. So that's a lot of research and a lot of KTT. So by understanding how KTT has been done in IPM, I'm hoping to identify the critical success factors, which could be used in KTT for other BMPs, which may not have the same level of adoption as integrated pest management.

Graeme (09:17):
Could you give us some more examples of what other BPMs or best management practices or best-

Amy Lemay (09:23):
BMPs. Yeah, best management practices. So things like maintaining soil health, crop rotations, no-till, things like keeping water quality, so watching your runoff, minimizing runoff from the field. Those types of things.

Graeme (09:41):
And all those haven't been adopted as widely as IPM?

Amy Lemay (09:45):
There's inconsistent adoption levels, yeah. Yeah. So we're trying to find out ways that we can improve the adoption, and my theory is that if we could understand what makes KTT and IPM so successful, maybe we could use it in KTT activities in those other BMPs, those other benefits management practices. Yeah.

Graeme (10:06):
And what were your findings about the knowledge transfer of IPM?

Amy Lemay (10:12):
So maybe I'll explain my research methods before sharing my findings. They're still preliminary and I'm still working on the data analysis. So my research is strongly in the social sciences, and so it involves collecting and reviewing records and documents on integrated pest management programs and research from the past 40 years in Ontario. And I've also done interviews with people, researchers, OMAFRA staff, consultants and farmers who were involved in IPM programs or research again over the last 40 years. So from these records and documents and interviews, I'm looking for patterns in KTT, how research about pests and other aspects important to IPM were shared and disseminated, and I've constructed what I call KTT history for IPM, how KTT and IPM has evolved over the past 40 years. And so the next step is to dig deeper into this data to identify these critical success factors, these aspects of KTT that seem to be consistent over the past 40 years. So critical success factors are areas of KTT that must be done really, really well to see widespread adoption.

Graeme (11:29):
It kind of sounds like investigative journalism for building up a recipe on how to properly transfer knowledge.

Amy Lemay (11:37):
That's a really good analogy. Yeah. Yep. That's what it is.

Jordan (11:42):
Very coo. It sounds like it's very important work that you're doing here, Amy. I'm curious actually, so you said... so it's actually kind of cool how the worlds collide here with the IPM being very scientific, agriculture environment connected, but then you're talking about social sciences because you're working with people and it's about how do individuals better understand knowledge and obtain that knowledge. So what's your background in? So I know that you're a post doc researcher, but did you study at the University of Guelph for master's PhD?

Amy Lemay (12:12):
I studied at UG for my undergraduate in environmental biology and my masters in entomology, And I did my PhD in sociology of science, science policy at the University of Toronto.

Jordan (12:26):
Very cool. That's awesome. So it seems like obviously you're the perfect person because you have that technical knowledge background with the IPM, and then also having the KTT knowledge as well. That's very cool.

Amy Lemay (12:37):
Yes. Yeah. So my PhD was really heavily involved in what I call the sociology of science, understanding how science gets used and adopted, and it's really important. I found that in spending my time on my undergraduate and my masters. So we do a lot of scientific research, but in order for that science and that research and that knowledge to get into the hands of people, you made a good point, it involves people. And so that's the social aspect of science, for sure.

Graeme (13:06):
Yeah. It's definitely a shame when you see research papers and they've never been cited and you always wonder how many views they actually get and stuff.

Amy Lemay (13:13):
Exactly. Yeah. And that's what KTT is all about, is moving that research out of the academic world and into the worlds where it can absolutely have impact.

Graeme (13:23):
So what were some strategies that OMAFRA and other researchers used to lead to the widespread adoption of integrated pest management?

Amy Lemay (13:32):
This is part of, again, what my research is looking at, and I should tell you that I've been working on two specific crops, grapes and muck crops, which are onions, carrots and lettuce that are grown in muck soil, which is soil that was once part of a marsh that's been drained. And I chose these two crops for a couple reasons. One they're well-established IPM programs and ongoing research, lots of KT in these crops, and I worked on both these crops in my undergraduate and my master's program. So in both cases OMAFRA and crop consultants and even ag commodity organizations are all involved in disseminating this knowledge about IPM, and definitely includes scouting and monitoring the fields and vineyards, weather monitoring.

Amy Lemay (14:27):
But in terms of sharing and disseminating knowledge, there's a range of things that have been done. There's print media, like fact sheets and crop recommendations, there's blogs and videos, workshops, conferences, even networks. There's websites, and more recently we're starting to see the use of social media in KTT. Definitely training sessions and webinars are really important way of disseminating knowledge, and we're also starting to see the development of some smartphone apps.

Graeme (15:01):
So in the beginning, like when the IPM was first emerging as a best practice, how were they disseminated? Just leaflets and talk of the town kind of deal?

Amy Lemay (15:18):
So that's really interesting part of the evolution of IPM over the past 40 years. So like I said, it started in the '70s, which is almost 50 years ago now. It was a lot of face-to-face. We had extension specialists, OMAFRA had an extension specialist whose role was to meet with farmers on their farm and work with them one-on-one. That kind of was rolled back in the late '90s for various political reasons, and so we've had to develop new ways of sharing knowledge and connecting with farmers and other knowledge users. And so we've seen sort of the introduction of... well, print was, was important back then, but it was actually hard copies of fact sheets and things like that. Now we've gone to digital copies, videos, CDs back then, and now we have YouTube videos, webinars. And in fact, one of the things that's come across, especially in my interviews, is the face-to-face one-on-one is definitely still the preferred way of sharing knowledge.

Graeme (16:25):
Interesting. I suppose the logs of farmers and other new methods of communication are really starting to take hold as well.

Amy Lemay (16:35):
Absolutely. Yeah. So with new technology, I've definitely seen the move, the evolution of KTT with new digital technologies and internet-based technologies. They're starting to... but then again, you have to remember that some farmers don't have access to these digital technologies, some live in areas where there's really poor internet service. And so where in some cases maybe in other disciplines, those types of KTT activities may be more effective. In agriculture, we have to be a little bit more creative in how we're reaching out to farmers and other knowledge users, because there's what we call... there's kind of a spectrum when we're talking about KTT. You have your researchers on one end and your ultimate knowledge users on the other, and in the middle, we have what we call these intermediaries. These people in the middle who are taking the research, synthesizing, aggregating it, translating it, and then sharing it with farmers or end-users. And so there's different types of strategies along that way. So it's not just a matter of a researcher connecting directly with a farmer, which does happen, but you've also got this important middle piece that's involved.

Graeme (17:55):
And in what form do these intermediaries generally come in these days?

Amy Lemay (18:00):
So there are OMAFRA crop and integrated pest management specialists who do a lot of love work in the field. They kind of play a role, they straddle both roles of researcher and knowledge broker, which is what we call these intermediaries. There's crop advisors. So in, in both the grape pest management and muck crop pest management there is programs where farmers actually pay to have people come out and scout their fields. So this could be in the case of muck crops, the IPM program for muck crops is run out of the University of Guelph's muck crop research station in the Holland Marsh. In the case of grapes, it's a private sector crop consultant who growers pay to come out and scout their fields and give them recommendations on what they should be doing in terms of pest management.

Amy Lemay (18:56):
A lot of commodity organizations do provide different types of KTT strategies. Like they have blogs on their websites. They do webinars specific to the pests in their commodities. And then a lot of trade journals, trade magazines, like The Grower or Fruit and Vegetable or something like that, they do articles on how to manage specific pests in specific crops.

Graeme (19:24):
And why do you believe that farmers have adopted IPM at such a greater rate than other sustainable agriculture practices?

Amy Lemay (19:36):
I think a lot of it has to do with the KTT. I mean, it's been around for almost 50 years, there's been a concerted and consistent support for sharing research knowledge with farmers, and including farmers in the research. So in a lot of cases, when we're doing research on a specific pest or specific disease or a specific biological control, we need to use farmers. We need to be in their fields. And so it's almost something like we call co-creating or co-producing, so the farmer becomes a partner in the research and they're directly involved. And I'm not sure that other BMPs have this longstanding collaborative approach that integrated pest management does.

Graeme (20:27):
And a key part sounds like forming these groups, whether it be a cooperative or private businesses alongside the best management practice.

Amy Lemay (20:38):
Exactly. Another sort of consistent factor I've seen him in my research and looking at the documents and looking at the interviews is the trust that gets built up between the person delivering, the messenger delivering the information and the receiver, the farmer, whoever it is. And a lot of times you've built up trust between in that relationship and so you trust the information that's being shared, and because there's longstanding research behind these recommendations, the farmers have come to really rely on the information and accept it.

Graeme (21:15):
That's great. It really does sound like a win-win-win where the producer wins, the adviser wins and overall, it's just more efficient for everyone.

Amy Lemay (21:23):
Absolutely. Yep.

Graeme (21:25):
So what are some of these integrated pest management solutions for muck crops and grapes?

Amy Lemay (21:30):
So in grapes, one that's been used for quite some time is something called pheromones. So pheromones are a chemical that's released by an insect. In this case, it's a sex pheromone. So the male insect releases this... or sorry, the female releases the pheromone and the male can find the female based on the scent, and they've developed these synthetic pheromones, which go into traps in the vineyard and you can monitor pest levels by counting the number of male insects. It's typically moths or butterfly pests. Moths are usually the pest. And so that's one thing. And they've also used pheromones for many disruptions. So if you put out lots of pheromone in a vineyard and you can confuse the males, they can't find the females, and so you reduce the level of mating and that reduces the pest population.

Amy Lemay (22:31):
In muck crops, it's a lot of diseases. So you get a lot of diseases in muck crops, and so one thing that they've done is developed these weather forecasting models so you know that certain diseases are more prevalent in cases of specific types of humidity and rain. And so they've developed these weather forecasting models, which can tell you when there's going to be a strong chance that the crops will be infected by these diseases. And so you can be prepared to go out, and in that case, you're going to have to spray. So you can time your sprays based on the conditions that are perfect for getting the disease.

Graeme (23:16):
That's great. I'm sure a lot of research went into studying insect pheromones and what not. It's not something generally a single producer will ever come up with and-

Amy Lemay (23:26):
No. Absolutely not. No. And that's a really important thing too about research and knowledge transfer and translation or knowledge mobilization is it's not just about a single study, it's about synthesizing, integrating multiple studies and coming up with a solution or a recommendation.

Graeme (23:44):
How has the pandemic affected your research? I suppose you can still do interviews from online and what not, just like we're doing right now.

Amy Lemay (23:52):
Yeah. So my research really hasn't been all that impacted by the pandemic. I was still able to do interviews by phone in and Zoom and things like that. It delayed things as we sort of got figuring out how things are going to go and got settled into realizing what life was going to be like in the pandemic. But for the most part, this type of research was... I was lucky.

Graeme (24:17):
And how do you become involved in a field like this? Honestly, it's the first time I've ever heard of the academic side of knowledge transfer and translation.

Amy Lemay (24:27):
I've been doing a lot of consulting on my own for the last couple of years, and it was all about sharing research, being involved in KTT. And that was one of the reasons why I ended up doing a PhD in sociology of science, because I was finding the real need for taking science, taking research and making it useful. And so I can definitely say that it is an exciting field to be part of, and there's lots of opportunities definitely for being involved in KTT. One of the bits of advice that I would probably give someone who was looking for it, so my research project is funded by a special funding program for KTT through the Ontario Agri Food Innovation Alliance. They have a special fund just for KTT. And so if you go on to the OMAFRA or the U of G website and you just Google or just search for KTT, you can actually see the different projects that have been funded from the Alliance on KTT.

Amy Lemay (25:38):
There's also groups for knowledge mobilization. There's one that's called the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization Forum, and it's just like a community practice, where people who are involved in knowledge mobilization and KTT share lessons learned and best practices and experiences. And one of the things that I can say about the way KTT has evolved over the last, I'm going to say decade, is how much it's become an integral part of research. Most research funding agencies and granting councils now expect a KTT plan as part of a research proposal, and researchers are expected to include KTT activities as part of their research. So it's become a really important part of the research process, and it's all because we're trying to get more benefits or better impact from our research. And so KTT has become a really important part of the research process.

Amy Lemay (26:44):
There are now jobs, specific positions in KTT. I mentioned knowledge brokers. So government organizations, government departments, organizations that need to use scientific evidence in their decision-making have positions that they call knowledge brokers now, and 10, even five years ago. 10 years ago you wouldn't have seen that position, so it's a whole new field that's opened up both in research and as a profession.

Graeme (27:12):
So what would a typical knowledge broker do?

Amy Lemay (27:15):
So it would be very discipline-specific and they would be focused on an organization specific too. So they would be focused on supporting their organization in synthesizing and disseminating a research specific to that field and the mandate of that organization. So it's a very specific role.

Graeme (27:39):
Interesting. So like a press spokesman mixed with someone who understands the science so that they can translate that knowledge.

Amy Lemay (27:48):
Exactly. Yes. Yeah. So they need to work on both sides. They need to be able to work with researchers. They need to be able to understand scientific research. They need to be able to synthesize research papers, and then they also need to translate that scientific language into plain language that their knowledge users or their end users are looking for.

Graeme (28:13):
And I'm curious, how can you measure the success of a certain program in creating the desired outcome? I suppose for integrated pest management, you can see how many farmers are adopting the technology, but is there a way to know how much one specific program can affect one specific outcome?

Amy Lemay (28:40):
So that's a really important aspect of KTT, is being able to evaluate your results, and it's a pretty complex process. You actually have to design an evaluation as you're developing your KTT activities. And so you have to know exactly what outcomes you're looking for and you design your KTT activities to meet those outcomes, and then you can measure those outcomes as you go along. And it's not just something that you do at the end, you're monitoring and measuring your impact as you go along. And I mean, it can be things like if you do tweet, how many retweets do you get, or how many likes do you get? So that's kind of like your outputs and then your next level of your evaluation is your outcomes. Have you changed people's behavior? Have you changed the way people make decisions? Have you changed the things that people do? So that's your ultimate assessment, is if you wanted a government department develop a new policy about pest management, well then your evaluation would say, okay, have we changed policy around integrated pest management?

Graeme (29:51):
Yeah. It's definitely not linear and a simple experiment to evaluate, I suppose.

Amy Lemay (29:57):
No. Absolutely not. No.

Jordan (29:58):
So I just have a... while we're speaking of outcomes, Amy, I'm curious, and maybe it's too soon to ask, but with your research in this area, I'm curious to know what your end goal is. So are you hoping to kind of create a case study and say this is what worked for IPM, or is it kind of going to be like a how-to guide to ensure success with KTT efforts and agriculture? Are you able to share a little bit of insight there?

Amy Lemay (30:22):
Sure. So as in any research proposal, my research proposal had to include a KTT strategy. So how was I going to share the results of my research on KTT? So in my proposal, I have three deliverables. The first one is a guide to the critical success factors of KTT and integrated pest management. So basically my research is focused on helping OMAFRA policy staff on developing policies and programs that are designed to promote the adoption of BMPs, and so my research is meant to inform those individuals. So I'm developing a KTT critical success factors guide. From that I will draft out a plain language policy brief based on my research results. And then my third deliverable is an academic paper. And I should also tell you that this podcast is a KTT activity for me, something that I didn't expect, but I am enthusiastic about doing it because it's just another way for me to share my research results.

Jordan (31:34):
That's fantastic.

Graeme (31:35):
On a personal note, are you finding that these newer formats are particularly effective at disseminating knowledge like podcasts and blogs?

Amy Lemay (31:45):
Yes, they definitely are. And it all, again, depends on the field that you're in. Some fields of research... KTT is quite well-developed in healthcare, and so that area of research and practice definitely has seen really good uptake in things like podcasts or blogs. Definitely.

Graeme (32:10):
Well, it's been really great having you on, Amy. I was wondering if you would have any advice for young researchers who are interested in getting their research featured more and making sure that people are looking at it.

Amy Lemay (32:22):
So as we talked about, there's a really strong element of social science to KTT. It's really multidisciplinary. So for a young researcher, I would strongly recommend taking some social science courses like sociology of science or science communication, or even innovation studies. I think there may even be some knowledge mobilization courses that U of G, but I'm not sure what they're called. And then I would strongly encourage researchers, young researchers, to focus on the ways that you could share your research beyond the obvious, beyond the academic paper or the conference or the poster. Think about who else might be your knowledge users and how else they might be interested in your research and how else your research might be used. So there's a bit of a creative or imaginative piece to this is trying to broaden the impacts that your research might have and then think about then how you would engage with those different types of knowledge users.

Graeme (33:22):
So get on Tik Tok, basically.

Amy Lemay (33:27):
Yeah. That's a possibility. Absolutely. Yep.

Graeme (33:28):
Well, thank you very much for being with us. Are there any shout outs you'd like to make before we wrap up?

Amy Lemay (33:34):
Yeah, for sure. I definitely want to acknowledge the Ontario Agri Food Innovation Alliance for funding my research and shout out to the folks at OMAFRA who have been very generous in giving me access to old records and documents and to all the people who actually agreed to do interviews with me.

Graeme (33:50):
Awesome. And thanks for agreeing to do our interview.

Amy Lemay (33:53):
No, my pleasure. Thanks very much for having me.

Graeme (33:56):
All right. Thank you very much for listening everyone, and we'll see you next show.

Graeme (34:02):
The Why & How Podcast is published by the Ontario Agricultural College of the University of Guelph. It is produced by Stephanie Craig and Jordan Terpstra. Recording and editing by Jakub Hyzyk and Kyle Ritchie. The host is me Graeme Li. If you liked what you heard, be sure to leave us a review and subscribe. Thanks for listening.