From Research Transfer to Co-Creation: Lessons from ACCOUNTED

Antoni Verger presented “Entre la co-creació i la transferència: la prova de concepte ACCOUNTED en polítiques educatives” at UAB’s yearly gathering on Research Transfer in Social Sciences. His presentation addressed a central question: what makes research genuinely usable for policymakers, and how does ACCOUNTED seek to create the conditions for this use?

Why “transfer” often fails, and what co-creation offers

Research transfer often encounters obstacles at three stages: the production of knowledge by researchers, the interaction between researchers and potential users, and the eventual uptake of findings in policy and practice. A linear understanding of research transfer and use can therefore be problematic in practice. Co-creation offers a different approach. Rather than producing knowledge first and transferring it later, researchers and public-sector partners work together throughout the process. This helps ensure that research questions, evidence and findings remain relevant to the needs of policy and practice from the outset.

Co-creations in practice

In the context of the ACCOUNTED project, the evaluation of the Zona Nord pilot is being developed through a Research–Practice Partnership. This approach has produced several benefits: information circulates more fluidly, the boundaries between research and practice become more permeable, and knowledge transfer becomes an iterative process in which emerging findings can inform the intervention as it evolves.

ACCOUNTED’s proof-of-concept approach therefore has seeked to build the conditions for research use from the beginning, through a stable relationship of collaboration and trust, rather than relying on a one-off transfer of findings at the end of the project.