Co-Creative Capacity

The purpose of the proposed synthesis team will be to synthesize and integrate transdisciplinary knowledge and research to develop tools, methods, and practices for building co-creative capacity in service to the use of evidence in practice to achieve wide scale socio-environmental impacts. Co-creative capacity involves scientific resources, governance capability, and adaptive leadership at multiple and whole systems levels. Co-creative capacity will initially be defined as “the deep involvement of a range of key stakeholders across scientific, governance, and local practice boundaries to create the infrastructure and context that enables and sustains the use of evidence in practice” (Metz, 2014).

The synthesis team will address the following questions:

• How can the active development of co-creative capacity contribute to increased role clarity and shared commitment among interconnected stakeholders linking science with practice, maximized synergies among complex and adaptive knowledge systems, and the optimization of evidence in local contexts for sustainable outcomes?
• What are the strategies for enhancing co-creative capacity?
• Can these strategies be converted into widely applicable tools, methods, and practices for enhancing research and action on socio-environmental challenges and across a range of disciplines?

The synthesis team will conduct three major activities:

1. Examine current capacities and challenges in co-creation across a range of diverse case studies;
2. Extrapolate major themes across case studies with particular emphasis universal and context-specific principles and strategies; and
3. Develop tools and resources to support the development of co-creative capacity applicable to socio-environmental challenges and diverse disciplines.

The Theme Building Resources for Complex, Action-Oriented Team Science provides opportunities for the wider global community to interact with this Pursuit.