IES to launch new toolkit for collaborative working

Over the past year the IES has been working with ACCESS (Advancing Capacity for Climate & Environmental Social Science) to develop a toolkit for collaborative working across disciplines and sectors in environmental science. This toolkit provides a practical framework and supporting resources to build more effective interdisciplinary collaborations in projects spanning research, policy, and practice.

The toolkit will be launched at the IES's flagship conference, Dialogue Between Disciplines, where an interactive, skill-building workshop will introduce the framework and related resources. The toolkit directly addresses discussions at previous conferences highlighting the need for more practical resources to support interdisciplinary working and systems thinking approaches in environmental work, as well as the need to forge greater links with environmental social science. 

The project has brought together environmental and social scientists representing different environmental fields to co-develop the toolkit through interactive roundtable workshops, building in cross-sectoral expertise and insights. The toolkit comprises of a set of six principles to help bridge disciplinary and sectoral boundaries, with each principle supported by practical questions, prompts, and co-produced resources that will help teams and individuals navigate different phases of collaborative working, from project design through to evaluation and reflection.

The toolkit will be published alongside supporting resources, including a case study report highlight examples of interdisciplinary environmental projects and key insights on how to build successful collaborations. 

Register to attend Dialogue Between Disciplines to be the first to explore the new toolkit and benefit from a tailored workshop by the project co-leads Prof Birgitta Gatersleben, Anita Lateano, Ethny Childs and Amy Bond. Attending Dialogue Between Disciplines will also give you the opportunity to hear from our brilliant line-up of speakers, including keynote presentations from Prof Tim Lenton OBE and Prof Gideon Henderson CBE. 

Image: anatoliy_gleb – AdobeStock