Chapter 12 - Financing WEF nexus projects: perspectives from interdisciplinary and multidimensional research challenges

Abstract

The efficient management of water, energy, and food (WEF) resources is a significant challenge that stretches across disciplinary, institutional, and geographical boundaries. In such research challenges, traditional scientific systems and the reward mechanisms associated with them may not function optimally. Moreover, as this is a space dealing with common goods, there are few incentives for market solutions to operate successfully. Thus, public funding is often the key driver for such activities, primarily sourced from national funding agencies or occasionally through philanthropy. As such, key actors who have been pushing such nexus approaches forward have traditionally hailed from development organizations or academia. However, academia still needs to address interdisciplinary and multidimensional science challenges and recognize the value of the different outputs such as publications versus interdisciplinary networks or data. We reflect on the experiences interdisciplinary research approaches have followed and how previous challenges have carved these paths. In doing so, we identify critical variables that are either hurdles or leverage points for WEF nexus implementation. Specifically, and in the context of this book's mission, we explore how scientific knowledge generation and translation can shape WEF nexus approaches in the Global South.