Citation:

Canfield, Katherine, K. Mulvaney, AND C. Dannhauser. Perspectives on stakeholder engagement and researchers’ roles in solutions-driven research. Advancing Scholarship and Practice of Stakeholder Engagement in Working Landscapes, NA, Virtual, June 09 - 11, 2021.

Impact/Purpose:

Translational, or solutions-driven, research aims to identify and address scientific challenges that are important to community stakeholders, and requires researchers to continually engage with stakeholders throughout the process. Working towards scientific solutions to community-defined problems has the potential to improve environmental and living conditions in a meaningful way for these stakeholders. This study contributes an analysis of the experience of both researchers and stakeholders on a solutions-driven research project to identify and analyze the various methods of stakeholder engagement to date, as well as lessons learned from piloting solutions-driven approaches. This work will provide transferable recommendations for effective stakeholder engagement in future solutions-driven work at EPA.

Description:

  Translational approaches to science have the potential to produce research that better meets the needs of both research and community stakeholders. Researchers involved in translational research make committed efforts to increase engagement and communication with stakeholders throughout the research process, from planning through implementation and evaluation. Referred to as solutions-driven research within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research Development, this approach is being piloted on Cape Cod (Barnstable County), Massachusetts. EPA researchers are working in close coordination with community partners on the Cape to better understand and address needs around managing nonpoint source nitrogen. One focus area, involving researchers and practitioners from at least six institutions, is how both active and retired cranberry bogs can be used as sites to mitigate the flow of nitrogen to coastal embayments. The pilot also aims to assess the usefulness of solutions-driven research for future EPA research efforts. Using content analysis and semi-structured interviews with researchers and other stakeholders, we examine researchers’ and stakeholders’ perspectives on the impacts of intentional stakeholder engagement on research efforts to improve coastal water quality. This study provides a reflexive assessment of the perceived benefits and drawbacks for researchers and other stakeholders when there is an institutional expectation of increased focus on engagement. Preliminary results include the importance of an efficient infrastructure for developing and distributing communication materials, and the tension between research that meets the needs of partners versus the environmental questions of interest to researchers. The outcome of this work will be recommended practices for researchers seeking to use a solutions-driven research approach, and lessons for how to support researchers in simultaneously prioritizing effective engagement and sound environmental science research

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