“Faster Alone, Further Together”: Reflections on INKE’s Year Six

Abstract

Background: This article examines Implementing New Knowledge Environments’ (INKE) experiences as a mature, large-scale collaboration working with academic and non-academic partners and provides some insight into best practices. It looks at the sixth year of funded research.Analysis: The study uses semi-structured interviews with questions focused on the nature of collaboration with selected members of the INKE research team. Data analysis employs a grounded theory approach.Conclusion and implication: The interviewees found the experience of collaborating within INKE to be positive with some ongoing challenges. The team is winding down as it moves into the final year of funded research. This suggests an arc of collaboration, with intensity of collaboration building from the first year to the most intensive time in the middle years and then winding down in the last years of grant funding. This article contributes to those lessons about collaboration by exploring the lived experience of a long-term, large-scale research project.