Four Methodological Guidelines to Evaluate the Research Impact of Co-produced Climate Services
Englund, Mathilda ; André, Karin ; Gerger Swartling, Asa and Iao-Jörgensen, Jenny LU
(2022)
In Frontiers in Climate
4.
p.1-15
- Abstract
As climate change impacts unfold across the globe, growing attention is paid toward producing climate services that support adaptation decision-making. Academia, funding agencies, and decision-makers generally agree that stakeholder engagement in co-producing knowledge is key to ensure effective decision support. However, co-production processes remain challenging to evaluate, given their many intangible effects, long time horizons, and inherent complexity. Moreover, how such evaluation should look like is understudied. In this paper, we therefore propose four methodological guidelines designed to evaluate co-produced climate services: (i) engaging in adaptive learning by applying developmental evaluation practices, (ii) building and... (More)
As climate change impacts unfold across the globe, growing attention is paid toward producing climate services that support adaptation decision-making. Academia, funding agencies, and decision-makers generally agree that stakeholder engagement in co-producing knowledge is key to ensure effective decision support. However, co-production processes remain challenging to evaluate, given their many intangible effects, long time horizons, and inherent complexity. Moreover, how such evaluation should look like is understudied. In this paper, we therefore propose four methodological guidelines designed to evaluate co-produced climate services: (i) engaging in adaptive learning by applying developmental evaluation practices, (ii) building and refining a theory of change, (iii) involving stakeholders using participatory evaluation methods, and (iv) combining different data collection methods that incorporate visual products. These methodological guidelines offset previously identified evaluation challenges and shortcomings, and can be used to help stakeholders rethink research impact evaluation through their complementary properties to identify complex change pathways, external factors, intangible effects, and unexpected outcomes.
(Less)
- author
- Englund, Mathilda
; André, Karin
; Gerger Swartling, Asa
and Iao-Jörgensen, Jenny
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-07-22
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- climate adaptation, climate services, decision support, evaluation method, knowledge co-production, participatory research, research impact, transdisciplinary research
- in
- Frontiers in Climate
- volume
- 4
- article number
- 909422
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Frontiers Media S. A.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85135476673
- ISSN
- 2624-9553
- DOI
- 10.3389/fclim.2022.909422
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: This work builds on insights and data previously published in Englund (). This research deriving from the UNCHAIN project is funded through a collaboration between the EU funding mechanisms Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) and Assessment of cross (X)-sectoral climate impacts and pathways for Sustainable transformation (AXIS). All partners are granted financial support through their national funding agency, of which the Stockholm Environment Institute received support from FORMAS (SE) (2018-02737) and the EU (Grant number: 776608). Funding Information: We thank the survey respondents for their inputs to this paper. We are grateful to Katrin Danerlöv from the Stockholm Environment Institute for contributing with her knowledge to the survey design. Lastly, we thank the reviewers for their time in providing comments to this paper. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 Englund, André, Gerger Swartling and Iao-Jörgensen.
- id
- a9b21d77-cf94-4b7d-a9b9-3e447c0ed547
- date added to LUP
- 2022-08-24 15:27:46
- date last changed
- 2022-08-25 09:08:36
@article{a9b21d77-cf94-4b7d-a9b9-3e447c0ed547,
abstract = {{<p>As climate change impacts unfold across the globe, growing attention is paid toward producing climate services that support adaptation decision-making. Academia, funding agencies, and decision-makers generally agree that stakeholder engagement in co-producing knowledge is key to ensure effective decision support. However, co-production processes remain challenging to evaluate, given their many intangible effects, long time horizons, and inherent complexity. Moreover, how such evaluation should look like is understudied. In this paper, we therefore propose four methodological guidelines designed to evaluate co-produced climate services: (i) engaging in adaptive learning by applying developmental evaluation practices, (ii) building and refining a theory of change, (iii) involving stakeholders using participatory evaluation methods, and (iv) combining different data collection methods that incorporate visual products. These methodological guidelines offset previously identified evaluation challenges and shortcomings, and can be used to help stakeholders rethink research impact evaluation through their complementary properties to identify complex change pathways, external factors, intangible effects, and unexpected outcomes.</p>}},
author = {{Englund, Mathilda and André, Karin and Gerger Swartling, Asa and Iao-Jörgensen, Jenny}},
issn = {{2624-9553}},
keywords = {{climate adaptation; climate services; decision support; evaluation method; knowledge co-production; participatory research; research impact; transdisciplinary research}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{07}},
pages = {{1--15}},
publisher = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
series = {{Frontiers in Climate}},
title = {{Four Methodological Guidelines to Evaluate the Research Impact of Co-produced Climate Services}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fclim.2022.909422}},
doi = {{10.3389/fclim.2022.909422}},
volume = {{4}},
year = {{2022}},
}