ON-MERRIT D2.2. Participation and impact report

The document reports on the participatory methods and co-creation activities performed during ON-MERRIT, which constitute an integral element of the project. The co-creation activities in the project include participatory involvement in problem-formulation, methods design, and active co-construction of policy recommendations. This deliverable examines these activities, assesses stakeholder engagement and targeted engagement activities within ON-MERRIT and then summarises the outcomes of ON-MERRIT Task T2.3 (“Co-creation activities”) and provides an update on Task 2.4 (“Final validation workshop”, to take place in February 2022).

The co-creation activities took place in every work package with different implementations, depending on the research needs; from community feedback to expert engagement to surveys and workshops, each of these activities aimed to verify and confirm that the research was solid and aligned with best practices.

Despite the promising premises, however, the co-creation instrument proved to need careful planning and strong links with the communities we intended to engage with to ensure adequate participation. Nonetheless, the co-creation experience so far proved to be a useful tool that might be employed even beyond the SwafS projects, as a method to check the validity, on a regular basis, of research and project findings and recommendations with the stakeholders, who will be the recipients of those suggestions.