Beyond Indicators and Success Stories: An Emerging Method to Assess Social Learning in Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Research Programs.

Facilitated learning approaches are increasingly being used as a means to enhance climate and sustainability collaborations working across disciplines, regions, and scales. With investments into promoting and supporting inter- and transdisciplinary learning in major programs on complex global challenges like climate change on the rise, scholars and practitioners are calling for a more grounded and empirical understanding of learning processes and their outcomes. Yet, methodologies for studying the interplay between learning and change in these initiatives remain scarce, owing to both the "hard to measure" nature of learning and the complexity of large-scale program implementation and evaluation. This paper proposes a new method for studying social learning in the context of large research programs. It aims to analyze the social learning of researchers and practitioners engaged in these programs and assess the contributions of this learning to the resilience of the natural and social systems that these programs seek to influence. We detail the theoretical basis for this new approach and set out six steps for developing multi-layered contribution pathways and contribution stories with stakeholders to document both the process and outcomes of social learning. The proposed method, we argue, can strengthen our analytical capacity to uncover the structural drivers and barriers to social learning that are often masked by the complexity of large-scale programs. An illustrative example, drawn from a large-scale climate adaptation research program, provides evidence on how this method might advance our methodological strategies for studying learning in these programs. We conclude by highlighting two key methodological contributions brought about through this approach, and by reflecting on opportunities for further methodological development. Enriching our understanding of learning and change processes, we argue, is an important avenue for understanding how we can pursue transformations for sustainability.

Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights.

An increasing number of research programs seek to support adaptation to climate change through the engagement of large-scale transdisciplinary networks that span countries and continents. While transdisciplinary research processes have been a topic of reflection, practice, and refinement for some time, these trends now mean that the global change research community needs to reflect and learn how to pursue collaborative research on a large scale. This paper shares insights from a seven-year climate change adaptation research program that supports collaboration between more than 450 researchers and practitioners across four consortia and 17 countries. The experience confirms the importance of attention to careful design for transdisciplinary collaboration, but also highlights that this alone is not enough. The success of well-designed transdisciplinary research processes is also strongly influenced by relational and systemic features of collaborative relationships. Relational features include interpersonal trust, mutual respect, and leadership styles, while systemic features include legal partnership agreements, power asymmetries between partners, and institutional values and cultures. In the new arena of large-scale collaborative science efforts, enablers of transdisciplinary collaboration include dedicated project coordinators, leaders at multiple levels, and the availability of small amounts of flexible funds to enable nimble responses to opportunities and unexpected collaborations.