New publications shall facilitate successful collaborations
The huge challenges of our time call for interdisciplinary partnerships between researchers and practitioners. But we need more knowledge on how to make these collaborations a success. The Crown Princess Mary Center can now present the first of several resources aimed at facilitating successful cooperation.
When they have to assemble a piece of furniture, most people will start by reading the manual for the best and fastest way to do it. But for researchers and practitioners cooperating on complex problems, there are no easy solutions or how-to manuals.
The Copenhagen Change Academy is the Crown Princess Mary Center’s[M1] research and communication project aimed at helping researchers and practitioners succeed at what we call transformative research collaboration. The first publications are now available, including a guide, four learning cases, a list of expert advice and a literature review. We call attention to several focus points within six dimensions of cooperation between human and social science researchers and different types of practitioners. The six dimensions are: problem, resources, roles, meeting place, process and change.
The Copenhagen Change Academy is a multi-year project funded by Realdania, which on a regular basis will develop resources to facilitate new knowledge partnerships between researchers and various social partners. Head of Center Simon Kjær Hansen explains:
“At the Crown Princess Mary Center, we recognise a need for more research-practice cooperation. This shall give us the all-important inspiration to solve some of the difficult challenges of our time. But such collaborations are often complex, and both researchers and practitioners must be open to different ways of working. Therefore, we have produced a series of resources which we hope will inspire more new partnerships.”