Systemic Collaborative Platforms: Accelerating Sustainable Development Goals transitions through multi-stakeholder convening arrangements

Abstract

The Sustainable Development Goals and the strategies that seek to realize them, such as the 'Green New Deal', the European post-COVID-19 'Next Generation Recovery and Resilience' program, or the Horizon Europe Missions, call on all societal actors to place public policies at the center of collaborative responses in order to effectively implement these agendas. Sustainability transitions theory proposes intermediary actors as a specific instrument to facilitate systemicoriented collaboration processes through novel governance approaches focused on long-term, experimentation and learning. At the same time, due to their capacity to articulate a transformational vision among partners and create a comfortable space for the sustained interaction of stakeholders with very different natures, multi-stakeholder partnerships are considered to be effective vehicles for conducting the intermediation role. However, a research gap has been highlighted because the characterization of multi-stakeholder partnerships as intermediaries, their functions in different transition contexts and practical influence on public policies have yet to be fully elaborated. In addition, thanks to their potential to promote both bottom-up and top-down approaches, higher education institutions are called upon to play an active role in partnerships for the Sustainable Development Goals. A second research gap thus corresponds to the need for more evidence regarding the specificities of the role of higher education institutions in intermediary and multi-stakeholder arrangements.Gracias, de corazón, a mis directores de tesis, Teresa Sánchez y Carlos Mataix. Teresa, conocerte ha sido una de las mejoras cosas que me ha traído esta aventura. Gracias por tu genialidad, generosidad y apoyo constante y desinteresado. Esta tesis es fruto del trabajo y contribuciones de muchas personas, pero sin duda, no hubiera sido lo mismo sin tu claridad y lucidez. Carlos, es difícil agradecer en pocas palabras a una persona como tú, con la que desde hace tantos años comparto el día a día y de la que aprendo en cada momento. Gracias por haber hecho posible que haya llegado hasta aquí, gracias por tu cariño, generosidad, empuje, tenacidad, compromiso. Gracias por todo.Quiero agradecer a todas las personas que con vuestra alegría y esfuerzo llenáis de sentido la vida. Y gracias a todas aquellas que os desvivís por nuestros niños y niñas; son la base para que nuestras sociedades sean menos desiguales y más prósperas, y para que nuestro planeta sea un lugar que merezca la pena seguir habitando.Gracias a toda mi familia, a mi madre, a mi padre y, sobre todo, a Nora y a Candela. Gracias por vuestra infinita paciencia y generosidad estos años, y por compartir conmigo lo mejor de vosotras. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAn investigation on the topic of collaboration would have been impossible without the hard work of a large number of people and organizations. For their dedication and commitment, I would like to thank all those people who are part of the systemic collaborative platforms

(Un)Likely Connections between (Un)Likely Actors in the Art/NBS Co-Creation Process: Application of KREBS Cycle of Creativity to the Cyborg Garden Project

“…The study has been conducted by five researchers involved in the implementation of the CG project between May 2018 and July 2019, and includes the perspectives of an external observer. The discussion has received feedback from several stakeholders from the EU's EIT Climate-KIC Madrid Deep Demonstration Platform (MDD) [4,15], amplifying the creative potential of the aforementioned case study [16]. The participants of this research project have reviewed and validated the final version of this paper.…”

“…This research project conducts a case study of the CG project within the MDD platform [4,15]. According to Yin [40], case study research is often adopted to understand complex social phenomena based on a variety of data sources [40].…”

“…In April 2018, the Madrid City Council and several local partners-including Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, through the Centre for Innovation in Technology for Human Development (itdUPM) and the Center for Contemporary Creation "Matadero Madrid"launched a collaborative platform-initially in the form of a Living Lab [44]-with the aim of accelerating municipal actions and political plans related to climate change challenges in Madrid. In October 2019, this platform was reinforced through the Deep Demonstration program (DD), promoted by the EIT Climate-KIC, and incorporating collaborative ways of working, agile organisational methods, a portfolio of experimentation, and a series of services interconnecting the city with experiences and learning at the national and European level [15]. The MDD portfolio of projects invested in three areas of interest: mitigation through mobility projects, monitoring of CO 2 emissions, and urban greening through NBS demonstrators.…”

“…One of the areas of experimentation in the MDD portfolio was thus driven to urban greening with the aim of co-creating and prototyping scalable interconnected NBS interventions, breaking down systemic levers such as public policies, financing instruments, governance models, and new environmental narratives [4,15]. In this multi-stakeholder framework, Matadero Madrid headquarters (Figure 4) was presented as a test-bed for the design of the CG project [45].…”

“…Land 2023, 12, x FOR PEER REVIEW 7 of 25 program (DD), promoted by the EIT Climate-KIC, and incorporating collaborative ways of working, agile organisational methods, a portfolio of experimentation, and a series of services interconnecting the city with experiences and learning at the national and European level [15]. The MDD portfolio of projects invested in three areas of interest: mitigation through mobility projects, monitoring of CO2 emissions, and urban greening through NBS demonstrators.…”