Report summary

The engagement, and in particular meaningful engagement, of partners is considered key to the effective practice of collaborative science. While many practitioners of collaborative science recognize that engaging meaningfully with project participants is at the heart of effective collaboration, it’s not always easy to define what meaningful engagement is, and what it means in practice.

Existing literature on meaningful engagement seldom covers the processes that enable and constrain it. Further, there is a lack of guidance on how to assess whether engagement activities have been meaningful or not. Ambiguity about what meaningful engagement is, and how it is carried out, can limit practice. 

The lack of practical and evidence-based guidance has prompted the NERRS Science Collaborative to examine the defining features of meaningful engagement in a deeper and more systematic manner. Insights on meaningful engagement were collected from people and partners affiliated with the NERRS. While the specifics of what meaningful engagement looks like and how to achieve it vary from project to project, the findings of this study reveal remarkably consistent themes for what tends to make engagement meaningful. 

About this report

This report describes what the Science Collaborative has learned about engaging meaningfully with partners during collaborative science. While the findings and framework shared in this report are primarily intended to offer guidance to collaborative project teams within the NERRS, this work has broader applications and uses in collaborative or coproduced science beyond the NERRS. A better understanding of what makes engagement meaningful will help project teams and their partners collaborate more effectively and meaningfully over time.

This study was conducted under the invitation and guidance of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) Science Collaborative. More details about this study, including an extended report can be found here: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/194317