Table 3 Illustrative quotes regarding co-production

Research more likely to be used

“…what increases the likelihood of research being used is if it’s coproduced, because then we’re actually interacting all the time. We’re talking, we know what the priorities are, and we’re actually setting an agenda for research and we’re collaborating on that…if we’re involved in the process from day dot, involved in its implementation, of course we’re going to use it, more likely to use it aren’t we?” Policy-maker

Co-production difficult to achieve

“I think the agency-led or researcher-led in my experience is common. But we have pursued that co-led idea, because I think that could have so many benefits. We haven’t - I don’t think we’ve had a lot of success with it, but I think it’s a really great model.” Policy-maker

Merging of experiential and scientific knowledge

“…there is a lot of evidence that is really more implicit, part of the tacit knowledge, part of the [experiential] knowledge that stakeholders have, and that engagement process and coproducing evidence of what works and what does not work is really quite promising. I tell you that in many cases, even systematic reviews…sometimes you might have strong evidence, but it doesn’t mean that at the level of implementation in governing contract it would work. This is where the knowledge coproduction piece is important.” Researcher

Co-production may require shared risk

“… you do need shared risk. Whether it’s financial shared risk, outcome shared risk, reputational shared risk, and that’s what kind of drives a lot of things, and sort of shared input in some ways, whether it’s in kind, or not in kind, or whatever it is. So, I think shared input, and shared risk, I think, is something that, probably, people might not want to say, but it’s very true, because that’s where you’ll get a lot of input.” Policy-maker

Keeps research relevant

“I think it makes the research better….you can check in with the people who are going to be most impacted by the research as you go along. Make sure you don’t go off on an academic tangent and lose relevance. Because real-world questions are messy and crowded, and often not exactly as they would be in the perfect academically articulated research questions.” Researcher