Best bang for your buck: Considerations for cost-efficiency in knowledge co-production

Knowledge co-production is a key strategy of collaborative engagement between research and management to achieve better outcomes. Whereas the principles of knowledge co-production in support of evidence-informed policy-making are increasingly understood, our understanding of its cost-efficiency - putting benefits in relation to its cost - is in its infancy. Here, we approach this gap by exploring the key considerations for ensuring that the benefits of co-production processes outweigh the significant direct and indirect costs they can incur. We conceptualise a relationship between the costs and benefits of co-production, consider preconditions that affect those costs and benefits, and outline options for improving the cost-benefit relationship. Specifically, we explore how to maximise co-production efficiency for key principles underpinning effective knowledge co-production (context-based, pluralistic, goal-oriented, interactive) and illustrate this with a hypothetical case study of co-production for the use and management of an emerging small-scale fishery. To this end, we conclude by providing a series of guiding questions that practitioners of co-production can use to help ensure that the benefits outweigh the costs. Our results provide researchers and practitioners with improved understanding of the costs and benefits of co-production and encourage the consideration of cost-efficiency in the planning of participatory research. Further, by considering the costs and benefits of co-production processes we provide critical insights into how to ensure effective and efficient science-policy engagement where expectations might exceed limited resources. This includes enabling more transparent and accountable funding and engagement decisions while engaging multiple context-specific streams of policy-relevant knowledge for evidence-informed policy.