Nine steps for a just transition pathway

By Caroline A. van der Weerdt, Antonio De Carluccio, Anouck Guillou and Julia C. Broderick-Hale.

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1. Caroline A. van der Weerdt (biography)
2. Antonio De Carluccio (biography)
3. Anouck Guillou (biography)
4. Julia C. Broderick-Hale (biography)

How can research and innovation projects that aim to support major societal transitions, such as cleaner energy, more sustainable food systems, smarter mobility, and better digital services progress from being pilot projects to affecting systemic change? How can they move from being focused on the solution to attending to the wider system in which the solution must land, examining benefits, costs, decision-making processes and which policies, behaviours, infrastructures and power relations need to change? How do these questions relate to a just transition pathway and how can researchers operationalise the underlying principles?

A just transition pathway is a structured, forward-looking process for connecting practical innovations to wider systemic change. It combines system analysis, stakeholder engagement, scenario development, evidence gathering, and policy translation. Its purpose is not only to ask what transition is needed, but also how that transition can be fair, inclusive and workable. Here we propose a nine-step process to develop such a pathway. The pathway is also illustrated in the figure below.

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Four negotiation areas at junctions between context, format and methods in transdisciplinary research

By Nina Maria Frölich and Melanie Mbah.

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1. Nina Maria Frölich (biography)
2. Melanie Mbah (biography)

How can transdisciplinary researchers bring together context, format and methods in a way that recognises their interdependence and their dynamic nature?

Much existing guidance on transdisciplinary research treats context as one design task, and the choice of format and methods as another, separate task. However it is more realistic to see them as interdependent, and that the relationship between them keeps shifting throughout a project.

By context we mean the organisational, political, socio-economic, socio-ecological, cultural, hierarchical, spatial, and temporal structures that frame a transdisciplinary project, as well as the team dynamics and types of knowledge involved.

By format we mean the overall structure that carries a project through its phases, from framing the problem together, through generating new knowledge, to feeding results back into practice―for example a real-world laboratory, a Theory of Change process, an arts-based approach or a step-by-step guide.

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Why research needs complexity entrepreneurs

By Gabriele Bammer and Jean Boulton.

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1. Gabriele Bammer (biography)
2. Jean Boulton (biography)

What is required to improve the understanding of research teams about the complexity encountered when investigating real life situations? How can they effectively embrace the paradoxical, elusive dance―the irreconcilable, intrinsic tension―between order and disorder, form and formlessness, and certainty and uncertainty? What is involved in research better supporting those intent on, or tasked with, acting skilfully in this complex world? Would a new research role―that of complexity entrepreneur―help?

We have coined the term “complexity entrepreneur” as a shorthand way to describe the attributes required to respond effectively in a world that is complex: ie., systemic, patterned and particular to context, and where newness often emerges in ways that cannot be predicted.

In this i2Insights contribution, we outline the key attributes of a complexity entrepreneur, based on Jean’s work. We then briefly describe the contributions of complexity entrepreneurs to research teams tackling complex problems, combining Gabriele’s and Jean’s work. Our aim is to test the water to see if others would also find benefit in distinguishing this newly-coined role of complexity entrepreneur.

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Three pillars for inclusive stakeholder engagement in participatory modeling

By Victoria Herbig, Stephanie Briers, and Bianca Vienni-Baptista.

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1. Victoria Herbig (biography)
2. Stephanie Briers (biography)
3. Bianca Vienni-Baptista (biography)

How can we ensure that technically sophisticated models represent diverse stakeholder perspectives, knowledge, and interests? More specifically, how can we improve: 

  • who is included to represent stakeholders,
  • engagement dynamics and stakeholder empowerment, and
  • genuine deliberation that embeds stakeholder contributions in the model?

Drawing on participatory modeling and transdisciplinary research, we have identified a framework of three interlinked pillars for inclusive stakeholder engagement:

  1. stakeholder representation (who is included?),
  2. engagement dynamics (how are the stakeholders included?), and
  3. collective decision-making (how is their knowledge included?).

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Participatory storytelling

By Marion Jay, Gonzalo Cortés Capano, Laura Kmoch and Tobias Plieninger.

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1. Marion Jay (biography)
2. Gonzalo Cortés Capano (biography)
3. Laura Kmoch (biography)
4. Tobias Plieninger (biography)

How can studies make use of the unique potential of participatory storytelling to explore the complex interrelations between people and places? How can researchers and local communities co-create rich, place-based narratives in dynamic and inclusive ways?

Participatory storytelling is a collaborative approach in which participants are co-creators of both their stories and the research results. As both a research method and a space for dialogue, participatory storytelling helps bridge knowledge and action while supporting more reflexive and transformative practices. By focusing on the lived experiences and voices of diverse actors, it reveals the values, emotions, and power dynamics that shape social-ecological systems.

Here we provide practical guidance for undertaking participatory storytelling. While our focus is on place-based narratives, the guidance is more widely applicable.

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Participatory countermapping

By Moné Vasquez Ladron de Guevara and Pablo Mansilla Quiñones.

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1. Moné Vasquez Ladron de Guevara (biography)
2. Pablo Mansilla Quiñones (biography)

How can Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendant and peasant communities, as well as others, co-create maps that capture their memories, practices, and territorial knowledge, especially in contexts marked by territorial or environmental conflict, and in histories and geographies shaped by coloniality? How can territorial representations and the spatial organization imposed by extractivist processes that dispossess people of their land be challenged? How can the scientific-technical rationality underlying conventional mapmaking―rationality that often erases multiple, subaltern forms of territoriality and knowledge embedded in these territories―be questioned?

Countermapping can also be considered to be a participatory action research process that supports territorial struggles through the production of maps grounded in local knowledge.

There is no universal methodological formula for this tool. Rather, a situated methodology is required that can be adapted to each context and the ways in which people live and connect to their territories. We propose a five-stage process and then discuss ethical considerations, as well as strengths and challenges.

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Transdisciplinary learning as U-shaped learning

By Gemma O’Sullivan.

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Gemma O’Sullivan (biography)

What is involved in transdisciplinary learning?

The transdisciplinary learning process can be seen as the development of two capacities: knowledge integration and actionable knowledge (closing the knowledge-action gap).

Integration capacity refers to the ability to integrate knowledge from different disciplines, epistemologies, cultures, communities and individuals across society to collectively achieve a greater understanding of, and solutions for, complex problems.

Actionable knowledge capacity refers to the ability to create knowledge that leads to action.

The two capacities―integration capacity and actionable knowledge capacity―are connected and enabled by a ballast of interpersonal, intrapersonal and cognitive competencies.

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Researcher motivations affect equitable collaboration with local and indigenous peoples

By Roxana Roos.

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Roxana Roos (biography)

What motivates researchers in choosing to work with local and indigenous communities? How do these motivations shape how much say local and indigenous people actually get in the research that affects them? What do researchers need to do to ensure that collaboration is equitable?

Here, I describe two clusters of motivations.

The first cluster revolves around verbs such as “understand,” “collect,” “study,” and “know.” Researchers in this group are largely driven by personal interest, curiosity, and a professional identity (“I am an anthropologist. It is my job to find out how people live”). Here, the researcher is the active party: they interview, observe, analyze, and publish. The local and indigenous people, on the other hand, play a more passive role; their practices and narratives are studied rather than being part of a partnership.

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The multidimensional process of co-creation: Five consistent dimensions

By Katrina Messiha.

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Katrina Messiha (biography)

How can we avoid co-creation being used as a general term for any form of stakeholder engagement? Are there key dimensions that co-creation processes should aim to consider? 

Based on analysis across 9 research fields, several types of co-creation and explicit theories, colleagues and I (Messiha et al., 2025) argue that co-creation is a multidimensional process, with five dimensions:

  1. Multi-stakeholder collaborative action;
  2. Process of co-learning towards innovation;
  3. Contextual knowledge production;
  4. Generating meaning; and
  5. Open, trustful and inclusive dialogue.

These dimensions offer a conceptual tool for planning, examining and strengthening co-creation research.

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Fulfillment, balance and process: Co-active coaching principles for team science

By Joanna Kaniewska and Gemma Jiang.

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1. Joanna Kaniewska (biography)
2. Gemma Jiang (biography)

What is Co-Active Coaching and how can it be applied in teams?

Co-Active Coaching (Kimsey-House et al., 2018) is a coaching method built on the premise that people are naturally creative, resourceful, and capable of finding their own answers. Rather than acting as an expert or trainer who gives solutions, the coach partners with coachees in a collaborative process that helps them gain clarity, make intentional choices, and create meaningful change.

In this i2Insights contribution, we focus on the three core principles of Co-Active Coaching—fulfillment, balance, and process—and show how they can be used in teamwork.

Fulfillment: reconnecting people to their purpose

Fulfillment coaching is about connecting work to meaning. It can be particularly useful when team members are disengaged, anxious, or questioning the value of their work.

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How could research ethics governance better support participatory, transdisciplinary, and transformation-oriented research?

By Ying-Syuan (Elaine) Huang and Julia Wittmayer.

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1. Ying-Syuan (Elaine) Huang (biography)
2. Julia Wittmayer (biography)

How can we design an ethics governance system that can better respond when ethical dilemmas emerge after institutional approval has been granted? 

This question is increasingly pressing for researchers engaged in participatory, transdisciplinary, and transformative work. Ethical concerns often arise in-situ where partnerships evolve, power dynamics shift, community expectations change, and research begins to have effects beyond the original project design.

These concerns do not fit neatly into conventional ethics review procedures at universities, which still tend to be organised around upfront review: researchers submit an application, a committee assesses it, and approval is granted before the research begins. This model matters for safeguarding participants, researchers, and institutions.

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Leading with Lived Experience across the research life cycle

By Catherine Brasier, Dan Chamberlain and Sarah Wilson.

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1. Catherine Brasier (biography)
2. Dan Chamberlain (biography)
3. Sarah Wilson (biography)

How can researchers and people with Lived Experience expertise effectively and authentically work together in Lived-Experience-centred research?

Along with colleagues, we have developed a structured approach, namely the “Wellways Six Steps of the Research Life Cycle,” which is shown in the figure below and described, along with 16 key actions. The aim is to help researchers and people with Lived Experience expertise to “work it out together.”

People with Lived Experience expertise demonstrate deep understanding of the following elements to drive their input:

  1. their own personal experience of the issue at hand
  2. their understanding of other people’s Lived Experiences
  3. Lived Experience values and practices
  4. the history of the Lived Experience movement – including the impact of the systemic and social factors.

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