6. Knowledge management for innovation

A huge deficit of most research organisations is the fact that knowledge is highly personalised and once individuals leave, the knowledge goes with them. Unless good knowledge management systems become part of the organisations, this leads to loss of knowledge and repetition of the same experiments etc. By knowledge, we mean the technical knowledge about technologies and experiences on those as well as knowledge about approaches and methodologies in research for development as well as in technical areas (e.g. soil and water management, seeds systems – just to name a few). By knowledge management (KM) we also mean more than setting up databanks. Cutting edge knowledge management is a process of actively nurturing knowledge in an organisation by linking the right people, providing platforms for sharing and processing knowledge and packaging into useful products in the public domain. 
PICOTEAM members have successfully developed and implemented specific methodologies to actively manage knowledge in organisations and across organisations. The main services are: 

• Design of M&E systems integrating knowledge management

• Facilitation of knowledge sharing and processing (lesson learning, systematisation and conceptualisation)

• Design of conceptually-based knowledge management systems (organisational and across organsations)

• Facilitation of workshops and conferences with an active knowledge management focus (e.g. recently a conference  with 400 participants in a specialised field who then contributed to the KM framework we designed beforehand together with the organsisers)

• Packaging / development of knowledge ‘products’ with our clients and development of Knowledge management platforms based on them, including e-learning

• Facilitation of ‘knowledge networks’, ‘communities of practice’, ‘open space’ fora, LearningWheel events and other methods for KM within and across organisations

• Design and facilitation of e-learning programmes and web-based portals for specific topics (e.g. research reform)

• Project / programme development on the basis of knowledge capturing and lesson learning processes.