Affiliation:
1. Rhodes University Biotechnology Innovation Centre (RUBIC), Rhodes University, Makhanda 6140, South Africa
2. Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University, SE-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden
Abstract
The EU’s Responsible Research and Innovation framework advocates for engagement between communities and scientists, creating opportunities for scientific research and processes to be informed and shaped by community voices. To date, few examples in the literature explore this in practice. Hence, key questions remain as to the role that communities play in this framework and the nature of and extent to which community voices and localised perspectives inform research and innovation. This paper explores how a collaborative community engagement process, facilitated at the outset, could meaningfully inform the establishment of a water quality testing facility. In Makhanda, a water-scarce region of South Africa, focus group discussions as well as site visits/observations integrated community and researcher knowledges to shape the community-engaged water testing facility. This study details how the daily assessment of water by the community provided valuable insights to the researchers on the nature and extent of factors affecting water quality and informed the sites and timing of water testing in subsequent scientific measurements of the same. Furthermore, it opened pathways to sustained, longer-term engagement between scientists and communities around water quality, highlighting the need for a multi-stakeholder focus to support community agency around access to safe water.
Funder
the Department of Science & Innovation/National Research Foundation (DSI/NRF) South African Research Chair in Biotechnology Innovation & Engagement
NRF SARChI Communities of Practice: Social Learning and Sustainable Development
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship from the Vetenskapsrådet (Swedish Research Council
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment,Geography, Planning and Development,Building and Construction
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