Lost in co-production: to enable true collaboration we need to nurture different academic identities

Involving stakeholders directly in the research process and co-production have become common features of research designs aimed at delivering impact. However, in practice co-production often comes into conflict with more conventional research methods and understandings of what constitutes ‘academic’ research. Based on the findings of a recent study of co-production as part of an EU research project, Annette Boaz, suggests efforts to facilitate co-production should focus on the practice as an epistemological, rather than methodological challenge, and focus on enabling the creation of academic identities that allow for authentic collaboration with research stakeholders.