Short Abstract

This panel examines if the knowledge produced on the African continent and within research collaborations between academia, practitioners and politics shapes research questions, methods, evidence, expertise, authority, or impact.

Long Abstract

Research funders increasingly promote solution-oriented research, societal impact, co-production, transdisciplinary approaches, equitable partnerships, and locally led research agendas. Research conducted in collaborative consortia is presente as generating more relevant, inclusive, and impactful research (Käser and Schubiger 2025; Kueffer et al. 2012, Ordóñez et al. 2024). As a result, research projects in Africa are increasingly conducted through collaborations between universities, civil society organisations, public authorities, or other non-academic actors.

Yet we still know relatively little about how these collaborations transform research practice and influences what ultimately comes to count as knowledge. Building on debates around transdisciplinarity and research partnerships, this panel examines how knowledge is produced and negotiated across institutional and epistemic boundaries. We ask:

- Do efforts to localize knowledge production change the knowledge that is generated?

- If so, how?

- How do collaborative arrangements shape research questions, methods, evidence, expertise, authority, or impact?

We welcome contributions presenting concrete experiences of living labs, citizen science initiatives, participatory research, action research, or long-term research partnerships across Africa. Contributions may engage with highlighting how and if collaborative arrangements shape research processes, outcomes, and claims to knowledge. Particular attention will be paid to the formulation of research questions, the negotiation of different forms of expertise, unequal power relations, competing expectations among partners, questions of ownership and representation, and the challenge of producing knowledge that is both scientifically robust and socially meaningful.

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