Reflections on Collaborative Research, Learning,
and Co-creating Pathways to a Circular Economy for Plastics
Natasha Porter
The 'India-Australia Industry and Research Collaboration for Reducing Plastic Waste is a multi-institution, multi-country collaboration. We are just over halfway through the 3-year project with a number of major outputs – reports, journal articles, presentations – produced, ongoing research, and data collection being undertaken, discussions regarding future collaboration opportunities, and a lot of enthusiasm to co-create pathways for a plastic circular economy for India.
This is a short reflection on the logistics behind establishing a meaningful collaboration project that both brings together researchers and produces impactful research.
Collaborative research and learning are key to solving big, complex problems, such as plastic waste reduction and creating a circular economy for plastics in India. Bringing together multiple research institutions with varying areas of expertise to contribute to designing a way forward in itself is a complex process. The 'India-Australia Industry and Research Collaboration for Reducing Plastic Waste is an example of successful collaborative research and learning, and development of cross-institution relationships.
Meeting between Prime Ministers kicks off the project
On 4 June, 2020, the Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison held the first India-Australia Leaders’ Virtual Summit, where they announced a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. From this, the 'India-Australia Industry and Research Collaboration for Reducing Plastic Waste was created, with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) tasked with bringing together six institutions for a 3-year research collaboration to catalyse innovation in plastic supply chains for greater circularity.
Six research institutions, two countries, over 35 researchers
The collaboration brings together six research institutions in both India – The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research–National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), and Development Alternatives (DA) and Australia – the University of New South Wales–Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (UNSW - SMaRT), the University of Technology Sydney–Institute for Sustainable Futures (UTS-ISF), and CSIRO. These institutions are also located in various places across the two countries.
Each institution brings individual capabilities, expertise, and networks to the research. Some of the capabilities across our team of over 35 researchers include polymer chemistry and engineering, social science, environmental monitoring and modelling, life cycle assessment, economics, business models, system analytics, policy, circular economy, natural resource, and waste management. Our team also varies in experience from early career researchers to experienced research leaders in their fields.
This variety in capability brings richness to the research team, but it is the shared ambition to enable innovation across the plastics supply chain to achieve a circular plastics economy that drives this project forward.
Designing the logistics of a collaboration project
So how did we set up this project to maximise collaborative research and learning between the 6 partner institutions and more than 35 individual researchers? A number of broad research activities were identified early in the project. One of the main aims when establishing the activity teams was to have a mix of researchers from the six collaborating institutions working together and co-led by one lead researcher from an Indian institution and one lead researcher from an Australian institution. The research activities include metrics and data (led by TERI and CSIRO), innovation and technology (led by CSIR-NEERI and UNSW-SMaRT), policy and behaviour (led by DA and UTS-ISF). We have found that over time these activity teams often have researchers representing three or more partner institutions.
An inclusive process
In addition to building the team with a mix of researchers across different institutions, from the early stages of project development, we set up an inclusive process, involving a wide range of researchers in establishing the project scope and vision and research plans. Including researchers at different stages of their careers, with different levels of experience in the field of plastic waste and circular economy, and different cultural backgrounds, provides diverse perspectives on many aspects of the project. We have throughout the project workshopped ideas, visions, and plans for the project, utilising online meeting technologies, such as video conferencing, online shared documents, and whiteboards for meeting discussions. This process has also involved seeking feedback and input from across the activity teams to ensure plans and output are robust and impactful. The project has also created an MS Teams space to share information (media articles, conferences, new research, accomplishments) and communicate between researchers, as well as a project webpage to promote our research outside the research team (https://research.csiro.au/rpwi/).
Lots of communication
Another significant feature of our collaboration process has been our regular communication between researchers, activity teams, and collaboration partner leaders. Many of the activity teams have weekly or fortnightly meetings to ensure that the project is progressing as required, all team members are up to date with the current project status and issues, if any, are discussed and resolved as a team. Through these regular meetings, effective and positive working relationships have been established. The Leadership Team (comprising the lead researcher from each of the six collaborating institutions, plus the Project Manager) have also established monthly meetings to keep abreast of project developments and opportunities. Bi-annual meetings of the whole of research teams have been a successful mode of sharing current research findings of each activity, overall milestone project developments as well as providing an opportunity to showcase researchers (for example, via our Early Career Researcher Showcase held in 2021, where we learnt about their academic background, where they fit into the project, and how this project fits into their wider career goals).
As with all research, we have hit hiccups along the way – interruptions due to COVID-19, researchers moving on to other opportunities – but we have found good communication to be the foundation of successfully dealing with these issues and changes. Enthusiastic researchers, current, past, and new, have also contributed to the success of this collaboration. In very busy schedules, we often have volunteers willing to review documents and provide feedback, meet to discuss opportunities, step in to represent their institution at short notice, work together to solve problems, celebrate achievements of teams and individuals.
The collaboration does not end with the six partner institutions; we are also working with stakeholders in the industry, government, and community throughout the project to develop the Circular Economy Roadmap for Plastics Waste Reduction in India. This roadmap aims to help drive the transformation of the plastic waste economy in India into a circular economy, by designing out waste and pollution, keeping materials and products in use many times over, and reducing pressure on natural resources. To date, there has been much interest from stakeholders to engage with our project through individual meetings, larger round-table discussions, and semi-structured interviews. While many of us are yet to meet in person, there is a strong feeling of being involved in a team who are working towards an ambitious common goal. We have laid the foundations for a successful collaboration and look forward to the development of our project, and what else we can achieve as a team during the remaining part of 2022 and into 2023.
Natasha.Porter@csiro.au
Affiliation:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia