Designing, doing, and evaluating research co-production

Research co-production is an umbrella term used to describe collaborative approaches to knowledge generation that bring voices and perspectives together to uncover collective solutions. 

By shaping and conducting research together, the process can amplify local and grounded perspectives and give communities power over what knowledge is created and how solutions to complex challenges are implemented and achieved. In a recent publication, we describe co-production as a process in which:

“a (co-production) team aims to identify problems worth solving, design a research strategy that makes sense to all involved, interpret the meaning and merit of what is discovered for each party, and share and possibly implement findings collaboratively.” 

IDRC has supported research co-production — across multiple fields and geographies, and under many names and iterations — since our inception in 1970. Many advantages of research co-production have been hypothesized, and in some cases documented, in both the academic and practice record. One of the fundamental working assumptions at IDRC is that research co-production can enhance the utility, legitimacy and rigour of the work. However, practical tools to support research design that focus on meaningful partnerships are limited and there are significant gaps in understanding how to evaluate the quality of co-production. 

The Research Quality Plus for Co-Production framework (RQ+ 4 Co-Pro) 

Building on the foundations of the Research Quality Plus (RQ+) approach, IDRC is working with our global research community, including the Integrated Knowledge Translation Research Network, to reimagine how we design, manage and evaluate the quality of research carried out in partnership with knowledge holders, users and/or beneficiaries. The result is RQ+ 4 Co-Pro, or Research Quality Plus for Co-Production, a novel framework which embraces the tenets of RQ+ and applies them to the specifics of research co-production.    

RQ+ 4 Co-Pro prioritizes the importance of meaningful partnerships between researchers, knowledge holders, users and/or beneficiaries throughout research design, research implementation and the sharing of research findings. The aim is to strengthen co-production processes to advance rigorous, legitimate and useful understanding of our natural and social world. We invite our partners and the research community at large to help tailor and test this new approach across contexts.  

Dive deeper with these scholarly insights

• Our paper in Health Research Policy and Systems outlines the RQ+ 4 Co-Pro framework, how it might be useful and used, and the co-production process we undertook to develop it. We invite tailored application, creative iteration, and improvement of RQ+ 4 Co-Pro. We welcome feedback on its use at evaluation@idrc.ca.  
• A Study Protocol in Implementation Science Communications describes the design of the field-test used to first apply, evaluate and develop the RQ+ 4 Co-Pro framework and assessment instrument. 

Download, tailor, and try the RQ+4 Co-Pro Assessment Instrument

This technical document presents the RQ+ 4 Co-Pro Assessment Instrument.  

It provides guidance, detailed descriptions and record-keeping tables, and includes rubrics that will facilitate the use of the RQ+ 4 Co-Pro framework in research co-production.   

It is an open access tool that users are encouraged to adapt to their purpose and context. We welcome all feedback on its application at evaluation@idrc.ca.