WITHDRAWN: Evaluating a large-scale programme for funding transdisciplinary research: Lessons learnt from the Wellcome Trust's Our Planet Our Health research partnerships

Abstract

Transdisciplinary research is increasingly recognised as critical for addressing complex societal challenges, yet funding has been limited and best practices are not well defined. The Wellcome Trust's £75M Our Planet, Our Health (OPOH) funding programme aimed to foster inter- and transdisciplinary research to tackle dynamically complex planetary health challenges. Such ‘wicked problems’ require methods to bridge disciplinary gaps, foster co-creation with non-academic stakeholders, and promote uptake of targeted, context-specific solutions. Developing operational frameworks for this kind of research takes time and resources, but can result in highly productive projects with real-world impacts. Wellcome's most significant investment under OPOH was in six large-scale research partnerships, spanning every continent. Each project was awarded £5-10M over 4-5 years. The novelty of the approach, and the substantial investment, make the OPOH partnerships important models for large-scale transdisciplinary research. The partnerships included researchers from an array of disciplines, alongside policymakers and practitioners. Due to their size and complexity, the partnerships required a six to 12-month ‘start-up’ period to identify and contract partners and staff, build relationships, co-develop research questions and scope, and agree on data protocols. They incorporated intricate working structures to ensure common goal setting and quality control, while overcoming barriers arising from mismatches in disciplinary ways of working, jargon, and expectations, and providing mentorship of early- and mid-career researchers. They were built on established partnerships, in order to leverage existing relationships. Several partnerships developed systems maps or Theory of Change (ToC) models, offering clear partnership visions and tools to review progress.