EQUIP ACTors for more impactful transitions – EQUIPACT

EQUIPACT is an action-research project proposed by a consortium of seven associations, three public laboratories and a museum. It aims to improve the quality and impacts of the participation of citizens and associations in co-research that contributes to ecological and solidarity-based transitions. EQUIPACT will enrich the skills of the actors involved in public research. The members of the consortium mobilise empirical field sites where they have long-term investment using participatory, action-research and intervention methods, and proven popular education practices. EQUIPACT is based on the work of the ALLISS platform and the achievements of its members. This collective work has enabled the consortium to identify a number of knowledge needs to which the project will respond.
The project is designed to interrogate five hypotheses: 1/ cooperation between academic and non-academic actors constitutes a robust configuration for the production of actionable knowledge; 2/ the methods and skills tested by the members will provide the justification needed to generalise some of them; 3/ our transdisciplinary approach reinforces the relevance of our knowledge production; 4/ co-research contributes to a democratisation of our society; 5/ these dynamics reinforce endogenous territorial development. EQUIPACT will target the lock-ins and levers for the success of co-research projects: a/ upstream (inclusion, matching, problems); b/ during (territorial interfaces, documentation, monitoring & evaluation); c/ downstream (capitalization, impact, evaluation).
The expected results are: 1/ a "skills training-capacitation" roadmap; 2/ a method for concise and systematic documentation of transition projects; 3/ a method for monitoring & evaluating the societal impacts of co-research projects; 4/ a guidance note for the public and territorial authorities that fund co-research. These results will be presented through a multi-stakeholder symposium and a special issue of the interdisciplinary journal Natures, Sciences, Sociétés, as well as publications in scientific and professional journals.
Expected impacts: 1. improvement of the expertise and efficiency of the professionals involved in the project as well as of those who will benefit from the resources and training produced, 2. recognition of intermediation activities and the empowerment of actors and collectives, 3. significant improvement of the methods and conditions of participation, 4. in the long term, transformation of epistemic cultures, increased impact of participatory research on environmental and social transitions, and better citizen and democratic vitality in France.