Having a wide and diverse network of collaborators, knowledge brokers and user groups is key to promoting research impact, particularly with policy makers. However, building a network is easier said than done. There is often limited time to seek out and develop relationships across sectoral boundaries. Even knowing where to begin looking for new partners or stakeholders can be daunting, particularly for early career researchers.
ACCESS is an ESRC-funded project created to champion environmental social science in interdisciplinary research, policy and practice environments. ACCESS facilitates network-building between social scientists, researchers and practitioners who work on environmental issues. Having reflected on who already engages with us across ACCESS, we were interested in exploring the true breadth and scope of potential entities that could link with ACCESS or could be working on environmental social science topics in the UK more generally.
As part of this activity, we developed ESS NEMO, a package of systems maps and other resources, that show the groups, organisations and individual actors that environmental social scientists could engage with in knowledge creation and/or exchange in the UK. Systems maps are visualisations of entities interconnected within a network and help to promote systems thinking. ESS NEMO is not just applicable to environmental social scientists, but to all those seeking to widen their network and include a broader range of partners in their work, whether as knowledge creators, brokers, or end users.
Two systems maps were created: (1) The overarching systems map, the ESS NEMO Landscape Map, maps the large overall landscape of entities that environmental social scientists could engage with, and (2) The ‘map within a map’, the ESS NEMO Westminster Map, shows specific ministerial departments, arm’s-length bodies (ALBs), and other entities within the UK government in Westminster that may be potentially relevant to environmental social scientists.
ESS NEMO was developed using the software PRSM, and co-produced with 32 environmental social scientists and researchers from research institutions, different ministerial departments and arm’s-length bodies of the UK government in Westminster.
ESS NEMO, and systems maps like it, are designed to support effective knowledge creation and exchange in research, development and innovation. This map is a tool designed to provide practical insights, diagnosis and evaluation, and critique and innovation. ESS NEMO can: (1) Increase research impact, (2) Facilitate collaboration, (3) Improve networking, (4) Enhance awareness of opportunities, (5) Broaden understanding of the complexity of the system, and (6) Provide inspiration for future systems mapping by illuminating the range of organisations and actors engaging with, or using, relevant research. It has already been well-received by UK government arm’s-length bodies, such as the Government Office for Science and Forest Research, to support new joiners and to build across-government partnerships. ESS NEMO has also been used by university policy engagement teams to support research impact, and by individual academic researchers to broaden their network.
Descriptive systems maps like ESS NEMO can widen our awareness of potential opportunities to collaborate outside of our existing networks. Importantly, this might include under-represented or non-traditional organisations, as well as those entities that are lesser known within traditional policy spaces. The system itself, and the number of entities we could be engaging with, is vast, diverse, and complex: while recognising this can make the task of undertaking knowledge exchange somewhat daunting, we hope that our systems maps, and others like it, will serve to support this vital work.
If you would like to find out more about ESS NEMO, you can find a link to the ACCESS webpage here, or contact us at info@accessnetwork.uk.
