EJWP3 participants are looking forward to facilitating a workshop this month on the topic: What makes a nexus project impactful? The workshop will be held on 23 September as part of the NexusNet Management Committee meeting in Athens, Greece, and is a deliverable of their collaborative project with the University of Thessaly in Greece, with the coordinated COST Action (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) initiative.
Three exercises will be at the core of the 2-hour workshop:
- A focus group will create a mental map with an open question for brainstorming: What are the tangible elements that make a nexus project impactful? Participants’ input will be recorded on a MIRO board to create the map and discover how the results concepts are linked. This map will be further analyzed by working methods from the University of Thessaly.
- A “World Café” with a theme on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): workshop participants will be divided into six round tables to interact on six transformations to achieve the SDGs and support for the European Green Deal, according to the relevant research published in the journal Nature Sustainability in 2019.“
- Compilation of “conflict hotspots” from the first and second exercise to introduce as a Deep Democracy exercise. Stakeholders will make a statement to initiate debate-discussions on an identified conflict hotspot. Participants will then physically move to sections designated as “agree” and “disagree” sections. These participants will explain why they chose their section, and a discourse will open that also allows people to change their position.
This workshop is set to accomplish a specific objective on NexusNet by giving feedback to create a white paper for project implementors. EJWP3 participants, along with Director Naomi Timmer, are considering items to be taken into account for the sustainability aspect of a project – to generate more of an impact than merely accomplishing an objective.
“Since I have a dual role as co-leader in NexusNet Working Group 2 and a member of EJWP3, I see it as a puzzle. We have developed a good synergy between EJWP3 and NexusNet in multiple ways. People have discovered the network and joined, so this is already something that it’s expanding,” said Dimitris Kofinas, EJWP3 participant from the University of Thessaly, “I’m enthusiastic about getting information at different levels from the workshop to improve and to share information across projects for helpful collaboration on EU objectives. We’ll try exploit results not as scientists, but at a society level of what works and not. It’s important to have the different sectors and disciplines collaborating. I really like how these universes are coming together to help each other.”
The project is also gathering feedback specifically from younger people in their respective professional fields, as a goal of the project management committee to bring more young voices together. Their perspectives will be further considered in context with researchers, implementers, policy officers and more. “We’ll have a diverse group on hand to help bring in all voices. This is essential to creating a valid way forward on these issues,” added Dimitris.
For more information on becoming involved in the NexusNet project, visit the website at: nexusnet-cost.com