Weaving knowledge and action: Integrating research and projects in 2024

'Field Notes' is a weekly column through which Regen Melbourne's Lead Convenors provide on-the-ground updates and insights from their work and focus areas.

With the successful launch of the City Portrait for Greater Melbourne, Regen Melbourne's Research Lead, Alison Whitten, explains how we're using research to take systemic action in 2024 and beyond.

This week, I kicked off the firstRM Lab Research Council meeting of the year. There were sober nods around the Zoom screen as we talked about anticipated shocks and ongoing environmental and social disruption.

As if on cue, the sky outside my window grew dark, and within a minute I had to turn up the volume to hear over the roar of rain and thunder. The state-wide damage from this storm event and related bushfires, off the back of a heat wave,is still being assessed.

Instead, we progressed through our agenda, addressing two key questions shaping my work over the coming year.

The first: How do we visibly connect the City Portrait platform to action and impact on the ground?

As the City Portrait took shape last year, its value as more than just a one-off data view became apparent. It evolved theMelbourne Doughnut from a 'compass' into a measurement system.

"If our team has one theme for the year, it's 'integration' – the weaving together of wisdom and action."

It's been great to kick off the year with each of our Lead Convenors, thinking about how their activities relate back to our purpose of moving us into the 'safe and just space' described by the Melbourne Doughnut.

The second question: What does it look like to effectively integrate research into Regen Melbourne's projects?

Rather than thinking about research and projects as two sides of the same coin, we reoriented our view to define research as one of many enablers necessary to both guide and be informed by our set of projects.

Looking at what this means in practice is much easier now that we have developed theSOIL methodology, which outlines our iterative process for developing Regen Melbourne projects.

It's an exciting start to the year, getting to the heart of my role and testing some big questions with our partners about turning research into tangible and measurable action.