Large‐Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights

Abstract

An increasing number of research programs seek to support adaptation to climate change through the engagement of large‐scale transdisciplinary networks that span countries and continents. While transdisciplinary research processes have been a topic of reflection, practice, and refinement for some time, these trends now mean that the global change research community needs to reflect and learn how to pursue collaborative research on a large scale. This paper shares insights from a seven‐year climate change adaptation research program that supports collaboration between more than 450 researchers and practitioners across four consortia and 17 countries. The experience confirms the importance of attention to careful design for transdisciplinary collaboration, but also highlights that this alone is not enough. The success of well‐designed transdisciplinary research processes is also strongly influenced by relational and systemic features of collaborative relationships. Relational features include interpersonal trust, mutual respect, and leadership styles, while systemic features include legal partnership agreements, power asymmetries between partners, and institutional values and cultures. In the new arena of large‐scale collaborative science efforts, enablers of transdisciplinary collaboration include dedicated project coordinators, leaders at multiple levels, and the availability of small amounts of flexible funds to enable nimble responses to opportunities and unexpected collaborations.

City to city learning and knowledge exchange for climate resilience in southern Africa

“…This approach fails to deal with the multiple stressor context and interconnected, complex urban ecosystems. In addition, a host of information is 'lost' that helps to contextualize the environment of the end-user [33]. There is a need to move beyond linear approaches to communicating climate information to ensure closer alignment with end-user needs, based on a growing demand for more usable climate information as societies deal with its real and devastating cross-cutting impacts.…”

“…The use of these learning concepts have been on the rise, given funders' recent (in the past decade) inclination towards larger-scale, impactful research that solves complex problems; versus the traditional and mere generation of new knowledge and the need for socially robust knowledge in adapting to climate change and building resilience [49]; [50]; [51]. Knowledge generation and sharing, as well as learning for implementation, have been emphasized as some of the important components of successful research, while underscoring the importance of learning from past experiences and scaling-up of successful models of adaptation and resilience approaches which encompass components of experiential learning [52]; [33].…”

Charting knowledge co‐production pathways in climate and development

“…Knowledge co-production poses different sets of challenges: Heterogeneous groups of stakeholders have diverse worldviews, cultural backgrounds, interests, objectives, motivations, relationships, institutional structures, and resources (Cvitanovic et al, 2015;Huppe, Creech, & Knoblauch, 2012). The basis for successful collaboration, many argue (e.g., Cundill et al, 2018;Harvey, Pasanen, Pollard, & Raybould, 2017;Huppe et al, 2012), is creating an environment wherein relationships are established, common vision is determined, and shared objectives are clear. Pohl et al (2010, pp.…”

“…For researchers, programme developers, and other stakeholders drawn to the stated promises of co-production, navigating this range of possible approaches presents an important new challenge that this paper explores. This work is increasingly undertaken through multipartner collaborations spanning two or more countries, and often between partners in the global North and South (Cundill et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2018), bringing added complexity to the facilitation of co-production. The structure of much of the work studying and responding to the impacts of climate change presents an additional dimension to the challenge.…”

“…The structure of much of the work studying and responding to the impacts of climate change presents an additional dimension to the challenge. This work is increasingly undertaken through multipartner collaborations spanning two or more countries, and often between partners in the global North and South (Cundill et al, 2018;Jones et al, 2018), bringing added complexity to the facilitation of co-production.…”