This article provides a literature review on the phenomenon of think tanks which was prepared for the Consortium national de formation en santé (CNFS). The aim was to identify think tank formats that are best able to facilitate the delivery of linguistically and culturally appropriate health services to French-language communities in Canada. The literature review tracked the evolution of traditional think tanks towards research communities focussed on a pragmatic shift that redefines academic knowledge according to user needs. The transformative practices emerging from this democratization of knowledge are innovative because of their systemic and organizational approaches to solving cultural issues.