Preparing for knowledge co-production: A diagnostic approach to foster reflexivity for interdisciplinary research teams

There is broad recognition of the essential requirement for collaboration and co-producing knowledge in addressing sustainability crises and facilitating societal transitions. While much effort has focused on guiding principles and retrospective analysis, there is less research on equipping researchers with fit-for-context and fit-for-purpose approaches for preparing and implementing engaged research. Drawing on literature in co-production, collaboration and transdisciplinary science, we present an operationalising framework and accompanying approach designed as a reflexive tool to assist research teams embarking in co-production. This framework encourages critical evaluation of the research contexts in which teams are working, examining the interactions between positionality, purpose for co-producing, contextual and stakeholder power, and the tailoring of co-production processes. We tested this diagnostic approach with four interdisciplinary research teams preparing for co-production in sustainability research in Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. Data collected during and after these applications, indicate that the approach effectively stimulated a greater understanding and application of a critical co-production lens in the research team’s engagement planning. Workshop discussions revealed opportunities for reflexivity were generated across four learning domains; cognitive, epistemic, normative and relational. We argue that fostering opportunities for reflexivity across these learning domains strengthens teams’ abilities to apply a critical co-production lens, in their engagement work. While this approach has been tested only in the initial preparatory phase for research teams, the framework and diagnostic questions are likely applicable to later work with collaborators and could support iterative re-application of the critical lens at important times during or throughout the life of a project.