Published on 18 June 2026
As environmental challenges become increasingly complex and interconnected, collaboration across disciplines, sectors and organisations has never been more important. Yet making those collaborations work in practice remains a significant challenge. A new guide from RENEW aims to help bridge that gap, offering evidence-based recommendations synthesised from decades of work exploring how environmental partnerships succeed.
The Guide to Collaborative Environmental Research calls for a more realistic and people-centred approach to environmental collaboration, recognising that tackling today’s environmental challenges requires more than scientific expertise alone. It draws together insights from academic research, policy analysis, ethnographic studies and oral history interviews to identify the practices that help environmental collaborations succeed.
The publication arrives at a time when collaboration across disciplines, sectors and organisations is increasingly seen as essential for addressing complex issues such as biodiversity loss, climate change and environmental degradation. Yet the guide argues that while terms such as “interdisciplinary research”, “co-production” and “partnership working” are widely used, the realities of collaboration are often far more complex than the terminology suggests.
The authors take a deliberately pragmatic view of research partnerships, noting that “collaborative research always involves negotiating across un-shared expectations and ways of working” and reminding readers that “this is normal.”
Rather than presenting a rigid framework, the guide offers a series of practical “rules of thumb” for researchers, practitioners, policymakers, campaigners, volunteers and project leaders working across professional and disciplinary boundaries.
One of its central messages is that successful collaboration requires active effort. Open communication, curiosity, trust-building and a willingness to navigate disagreements are highlighted as critical ingredients for effective partnerships. The guide also stresses the importance of creating opportunities for informal interaction, shared experiences and time spent in the field, arguing that these activities are not simply beneficial extras but fundamental to building strong collaborative relationships.
For project leaders, the publication emphasises the need to create inclusive environments where different perspectives can be heard and valued. It encourages organisations to recognise the often-hidden work involved in facilitating collaboration and to allocate sufficient time and resources to relationship-building throughout the life of a project.
It also contains recommendations for funders and evaluators, urging them to ensure that interdisciplinary projects are assessed by diverse panels and that funding structures properly account for the additional time and effort required to make collaboration successful.
As environmental challenges continue to grow in complexity, the guide’s message is timely: meaningful solutions depend not only on what we know, but on how well we work together.
The Guide to Collaborative Environmental Research, was released in June 2026 by RENEW’s Collaboration Theme and is available now here.
RENEW Collaborations Team: Angela Cassidy, Rebecca Edgerley, Eleanor Hadley Kershaw, Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, Ryan Shum
