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Paper short abstract

This study examines our scientists’ role as epistemic actors in a national consortium. Our consortium mirrored the dynamics under study, which hindered its activities. As a mirror, these experiences could have provided valuable insights, yet they were not recognised as data, leaving them untold.

Paper long abstract

With the rise of practice-oriented, transdisciplinary research and increasing expectations for researchers to engage in public–private partnerships, the role of the researcher as an epistemic actor has become less clearly defined (Nowotny, 2003). STS scholarship has long emphasized that science and its objects of inquiry are entangled (Knorr Cetina, 1999; Jasanoff, 2004). Yet, reflexive accounts by researchers how they experience and deal with this epistemological politics still remain scarce. (Schuurmans et al., 2025). Drawing on qualitative research (observations, formal, and informal interviews), this paper explores our own experiences as an epistemic actor within a national consortium that aimed to guide and monitor regional cross-sectoral networks organized around a complex societal issue in the Netherlands.

We observed that our consortium reproduced the dynamics we aimed to study within the networks, particularly in navigating diverse knowledge and interests and in positioning itself in the broader field. Addressing these dynamics required collaborative and reflexive work, which was challenging under top-down financing and accountability structures. This work was essential for the consortium to function and generate data, but it reduced the time available for data collection, increasing our vulnerability as actors. Although these experiences mirrored the processes under study and could have been highly valuable, they were not recognised as legitimate data, leaving an important story untold. Reflexive accounts of researchers as epistemic actors thus not only support learning from personal vulnerabilities but can also serve as a productive method for revealing the dynamics of the systems under study.