When I build alone
It is hard to look beyond
The bricks of my craft

Think of academic funding schemes, and immediately one’s mind goes to ‘the what’ – the grant call’s theme, the topic, the problem. But that sort of focus alone can reinforce path-dependency and hinder the inclusion of new and divergent perspectives.

At CUCo, we seek to decentre this conventional focus on ‘the what’ by giving equal attention to ‘the who’ and ‘the how’. We call this the ‘unusual trinity’: topic, team and process. We support interdisciplinary research teams comprised of scholars from very diverse disciplinary backgrounds that are keen to truly learn from and with each other. And we support them with harnessing existing practices and co-creating new ones to be able to really do that.

In light of this mission, it was a great joy to hold CUCo’s annual Unusual Collaborations (UCo) event on the 1st of November. During this event, which brought together the 7 interdisciplinary UCo teams we funded in 2023, each team took a turn to reflect on how they cultivate their own ‘unusual trinity’ – topic, team and process – and the pleasures and challenges that come with this. What unfolded during this peer learning event was simply inspiring – chock full of ‘aha’, ‘oh no’ and ‘oh yeah’ moments.
Many thanks to all those who participated and presented!

The 2023 UCo teams include:

• Plasticity: Here, There, Everywhere
• All in the Same Boat
• Clean Future: Wellbeing in “Dirty Work”
• Imagining More Than Human Communities
• Playing with the Trouble
• The Power of One
• Defeating Chronic Pain