Real-Time Evaluation of City–University Partnerships for Sustainability and Resilience
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
3. Results
3.1. Indicators and Measures: What to Evaluate and Why
- Foundation—Measures CUP participants’ perceptions of interest, competency, and capacity related to project undertaking. Seeks to understand feelings towards own organization and partner organization.
- Actions—Assesses perceived ability of all partners to plan and implement project-related change interventions in a co-created and co-managed way.
- Impact—Evaluates the perceived achievement of project goals and identification of opportunities for future work.
- Interpersonal Context—Measures participant perceptions of collaborative history between institutions, interest to engage, demonstrated motivation to engage, and mutual understanding of need. Seeks to understand perceptions of both own organization and partner organization.
- Empowering Supports—Assesses perceived and/or actual formalization of a partnership, mechanisms of the partnership, and resources committed on all sides of the partnership.
3.2. Actors: Who Evaluates and Who Is Evaluated
3.3. Tools: How to Collect Data and Disseminate Results
3.4. Timing: When and How Often to Evaluate
3.5. Knowledge Integration: Using Evaluative Results in Real-Time
3.6. Implementation: Quick Guide to the FAIICES Evaluation Scheme
- Define your city–university partnership—Who is involved, what are your goals, why do you want to undertake this collaborative work?
- Choose an evaluator—Determine whether you want to collaboratively conduct the evaluation, or if you want to identify a specific person or people on your team or entity outside your team to undertake the evaluator role.
- Pick your evaluation participants—Choose at least one central figure from each partner institution to participate in the evaluation. These people should understand both the relational and outcomes-oriented sides of the partnership. They will be the subjects of data collection.
- Determine data collection methods—Decide whether open-ended surveys, Likert scales, informal interviews, or focus group sessions will be best for your participants (and feel free to get creative or adjust over time). Develop questions and prompts to explore participants’ perceptions of project foundation, actions, and impact as well as the partnership’s interpersonal context and empowering supports (see Section 3.1). Example open-ended informal interview questions and guidelines and example open-ended and Likert style survey questions are available in Appendix A.
- Conduct evaluation—Choose an appropriate time to conduct your evaluation, usually just before or after a key event or milestone (see Section 3.4). Get survey/interview responses from your key informants on all sides of the partnership.
- Analyze and compile data—Data analysis techniques will vary depending on the data collection methods used. Therefore, either quantitatively, qualitatively, and/or subjectively compile data to show institution-specific and combined responses for each FAIICES category; depict in a visual format if possible (see Figure 4).
- Disseminate and discuss—Soon after results have been compiled, schedule a time to collectively examine results. At minimum, the people who participated in the evaluation should be present, but this can also be expanded to include the larger CUP team. As a group, (typically led by the evaluator) go through the results, question them, add context, change or reinforce the findings.
- Integrate results into CUP administration—Have the management team think about any opportunities, challenges, or interesting findings that were exposed by the analysis. Question whether these findings indicate that a change in CUP typology, strategy, or goals is needed. Pay specific attention to places where modifications could lead to a better partnership trajectory, or tangible impacts. Finally, decide if and how to respond to these findings, and adjust CUP practices accordingly.
- Repeat FAIICES process—Follow the same instructions at the next appropriate evaluation time; you can then also explore how results change over time for deeper understanding of CUP evolution.
4. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
- Please describe the approach you are using for your collaborative project. Has your approach changed?
- Where would you like to be a year from now? Why? What do you need to get there?
- What are the impacts you envision from your project? From your partnership?
- Who do you work with at the city/university?
- What challenges are you currently facing? What opportunities do you see?
- What have you learned from using the real-time evaluation tool so far? What has been most helpful or hurtful and why?
- What is your relationship to this project?
- What is the goal of this project?
- What are the primary actions being taken to support these goals?
- State the primary individuals and organizations involved in this project. Who are the leads?
- Please describe where you are currently at within the project timeline (i.e., phase 1 of a 3 phase project, or month 6 out of a yearlong project).
- Will this project have permanent sustainability impacts that endure after the project has been completed? Please explain.
- At the university, are there a variety of academic positions (including students, researchers, and faculty) that are interested in the topic of this project? Please explain.
- At the city are there a variety of staff interested in the topic of this project? Please explain.
- At the university, how would you describe the level of understanding of the project topic? Do they have the skills and abilities needed to complete this project?
- At the city, how would you describe the level of understanding of the project topic? Do they have the skills and abilities needed to complete this project?
- Does the city have all of the resources (time, money, personnel, etc.) needed to undertake this project? Please explain.
- Does the university have all of the resources (time, money, personnel, etc.) needed to undertake this project? Please explain.
- Does the university have the ability to engage students in this work and/or provide them with related research opportunities? Please explain.
- Does the university have experience working as a convener (i.e., bringing together multiple stakeholders)? Please explain.
- Please describe the level of trust between the city and university regarding this project.
- Please describe the level of communication between the city and university regarding this project.
- Please describe the level of commitment to this project. Are both sides of the partnership fully dedicated?
- Have the roles and responsibilities regarding project scoping and management been well defined, agreed upon, and co-created by both sides of the partnership? Please explain.
- Have the roles and responsibilities regarding fundraising and communications been well defined, agreed upon, and co-created by both sides of the partnership? Please explain.
- Have the roles and responsibilities regarding scheduling, meeting, and planning been well defined, agreed upon, and co-created by both sides of the partnership? Please explain.
- A reference document that memorializes the partnership has been created and agreed upon by both sides of the partnership.
- Before this project began, what actions had been taken by the city to work towards the topic of this project? i.e., City council announced that they would make a climate action plan.
- Since this project began, what actions have been taken by the city to work towards the goal of this project? i.e., City officers have attended 2 workshops to start visioning the climate action process.
- Before this project began, what actions had been taken by the university to work towards the topic of this project? i.e., multiple publications on climate mitigation strategies has been produced.
- Since this project began, what actions have been taken by the university to work towards the goal of this project? i.e., University hired students to coordinate and facilitate climate action planning workshops.
- Is the partnership structure being used to co-develop and design project activities? Please explain.
- Based on your own personal understanding and assessment of the project, do you feel that the goals of this project have been achieved? Please explain.
- Do you envision future projects that build off this project and can utilize this partnership? Please explain.
- Do both sides have a desire to be partners with each other? Please explain.
- What drives the participation in the partnership? What do the partners hope to gain from partnering?
- Do both sides of the partnership have enough motivation to enable dedication to the partnership? Please explain.
- Are both sides of the partnership willing to do what it takes to actively engage in the partnership? Please explain.
- Please rate your satisfaction with the level of motivation to partner and willingness to engage in partnership:
- Have you and your partner completed projects together in the past? Please explain.
- Were you satisfied with the outcomes of the past projects and your experience with the partner? Please explain.
- Are both sides of the partnership committing resources (time, money, personnel, etc.) to the development of the partnership itself? Please explain.
- Have roles and responsibilities in the partnership been outlined and agreed upon? Please explain.
- Are there documents that specifically state the goals and/or purpose of the partnership? Please explain.
- Would you describe both sides of the partnership as feeling empowered and valued in the partnership? Please explain.
- Do the partners have an understanding of each others needs? Please explain.
- Do the partners have an understanding of each others mission and priorities? Please explain.
- Does the partnership influence the internal strategies at both organizations? Please explain.
- Have the partners aligned their missions, in the context of the partnership? Please explain.
- Please rate your satisfaction with the sustainability impacts this project aims to produce:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the overall amount of interest in the topic of this project:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the level of capacity for this project:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the level of co-management for this project:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the actions that have been taken by this project:
- Please rate your current satisfaction with the outcomes and impacts that have been achieved by this project:
- Overall, rate your current level of satisfaction with the progress and functioning of the project:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the history of collaboration with your partner:
- Please rate your level of satisfaction with the resources that have been committed to the partnership:
- Please rate your satisfaction with the level of mutual understanding in the partnership:
- Overall, rate your current level of satisfaction with the progress and functioning of the partnership:
- Please rate your level of satisfaction with the structure of the partnership overall:
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Partnership Modes | Attributes | Context |
---|---|---|
Routine | Transactional, consultant-based or fee-for-service; Loose exchanges; One-sided deliverables; Limited joint efforts; One-off projects; Often based on individual (rather than institutional) relationships | Straight-forward problems i.e., community organization manager working with a researcher to develop maps of street trees |
Strategic | Loose partnership; Shared vision and desire to co-create; Often externally focused | Complicated problems i.e., Business organization and city department collaborating on the development and implementation of initiatives for minority-owned businesses |
Transformative | Formalized partnerships; Deep cross-institutional learning and mission alignment; Focused on internal and external systemic change | Complex problems i.e., City, university, and community coming together to develop holistic equity-focused climate adaptation plan |
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Caughman, L.; Withycombe Keeler, L.; Beaudoin, F. Real-Time Evaluation of City–University Partnerships for Sustainability and Resilience. Sustainability 2020, 12, 8796. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218796
Caughman L, Withycombe Keeler L, Beaudoin F. Real-Time Evaluation of City–University Partnerships for Sustainability and Resilience. Sustainability. 2020; 12(21):8796. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218796
Chicago/Turabian StyleCaughman, Liliana, Lauren Withycombe Keeler, and Fletcher Beaudoin. 2020. "Real-Time Evaluation of City–University Partnerships for Sustainability and Resilience" Sustainability 12, no. 21: 8796. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218796