How can research contribute to address pressing societal challenges, whilst remaining both independent and trustworthy, living up to the highest scientific standards of validity?

The document argues against a sequential model of research where results are merely 'translated' for stakeholders at the end of a project. Instead, it advocates for knowledge co-creation, an inclusive process where stakeholders are involved from the design phase through data analysis and communication. Using examples from the 'Active Citizenship in Culturally and Religiously Diverse Societies' (ACT) project, the brief demonstrates how interactive workshops and conferences can facilitate the exchange of experiential and professional knowledge. It concludes that while this approach increases relevance, new evaluation mechanisms are needed to capture the unpredictable, bottom-up nature of its societal impact.

• Traditional research models often follow a sequential logic where academics develop designs and publish results before translating them for stakeholders, which frequently leads to outputs that policymakers find too 'academic' or inapplicable to everyday practice.
• Knowledge co-creation is an inclusive approach to producing knowledge through interaction, challenging the binary view that researchers are the sole creators of knowledge and society consists of passive recipients.
• A co-creation approach integrates stakeholders across three primary research stages: the design phase to identify societal challenges that also present academic puzzles; data collection and analysis through participatory methods; and the communication of results via accumulative, non-sequential processes.
• The document distinguishes between 'experiential knowledge' (bodily knowledge gained from living through an experience) and 'professional knowledge' (built through systematic study and practice), arguing that both are complementary in the co-creation process.
• The ACT project (2014–2018) implemented co-creation by collaborating with the Red Cross and a learning coach to develop a participatory workshop and a conference for approximately 75 participants, including artists and public sector workers, to explore diversity and belonging in Norway.
• Capturing the impact of co-created research is difficult because such impact often occurs in 'bottom-up' and 'processual' ways that are unexpected and unpredictable, necessitating new tracing and evaluation mechanisms.

APA

Horst, C., & Erdal, M. B. (2018). How can research contribute to address pressing societal challenges, whilst remaining both independent and trustworthy, living up to the highest scientific standards of validity? Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/958410a5-6a92-40f2-8cde-4cbb6a2c050f/Horst Erdal - Co-Creating Knowledge PRIO Policy Brief 10-2018.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Horst, Cindy, and Marta Bivand Erdal. How can research contribute to address pressing societal challenges, whilst remaining both independent and trustworthy, living up to the highest scientific standards of validity? Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2018. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/958410a5-6a92-40f2-8cde-4cbb6a2c050f/Horst Erdal - Co-Creating Knowledge PRIO Policy Brief 10-2018.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Horst |first1=Cindy |last2=Erdal |first2=Marta Bivand |title=How can research contribute to address pressing societal challenges, whilst remaining both independent and trustworthy, living up to the highest scientific standards of validity? |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=October 2018 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/958410a5-6a92-40f2-8cde-4cbb6a2c050f/Horst Erdal - Co-Creating Knowledge PRIO Policy Brief 10-2018.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{horst2018how, author = {Horst, Cindy and Erdal, Marta Bivand}, title = {{How can research contribute to address pressing societal challenges, whilst remaining both independent and trustworthy, living up to the highest scientific standards of validity?}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/958410a5-6a92-40f2-8cde-4cbb6a2c050f/Horst Erdal - Co-Creating Knowledge PRIO Policy Brief 10-2018.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }