Telfer Knowledge Mobilization Excellence Award 2025 — Michael Mulvey

The Telfer School of Management is thrilled to present Professor Michael Mulvey with the 2025 Knowledge Mobilization (KMb) Excellence Award as its inaugural recipient. This award recognizes faculty members who have disseminated knowledge generated through their research to users beyond the scientific community in impactful and innovative ways to strengthen the links between academic research and society.

Mulvey’s research delves into how and why products, services, brands, and behaviors become personally meaningful to consumers. His talent for translating research insights into real-world impact, whether through innovative marketing strategies or accessible travel to marginalized populations, exemplifies the very spirit of this award.

Mulvey’s work on inclusive air travel is a powerful example of turning research into action. His Daring to Travel project, sparked by a 2016 forum by the University of Ottawa LIFE Research Institute and the International Longevity Centre Canada, has evolved into an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to dismantling barriers to air travel for older people and persons with cognitive impairments or those living with dementia. With funding from Transport Canada, this ambitious initiative brings together seniors, people with disabilities, caregivers, advocacy groups, airport authorities, airline leaders, and government regulators to co-create solutions that make travel more inclusive and accessible. 

Mulvey’s work has influenced national and international policy by informing new accessibility guidelines at Transport Canada and helped shape Canada’s contribution to the International Civil Aviation Organization, the UN agency that sets air travel standards. Moreover, two of his Transport Canada-funded projects, including Canadians D-AIRing to Travel and Canadian Airport Services and Programs for People Living with Dementia, produced concrete recommendations that now influence airport design and staff training across the country. 

Graduate students involved in these projects gained hands-on experience in inclusive design and stakeholder engagement, and their research played a key role in securing over $200,000 in external funding. Among them was PhD student Valentina Primossi, whose video on inclusive air travel became a uoGRADflix finalist, showcasing the project’s creative approach to public engagement.

Mulvey’s leadership highlights the power of cross-sector collaboration to tackle the complex, cross-jurisdictional challenges in air travel that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable. Aligned with Canada’s goal of a barrier-free society by 2040, his knowledge mobilization work proves that universities can drive real systemic change. The Telfer community proudly congratulates him on this well-deserved award.