And we’re off! The six teams who were selected by means of a lottery took part in the kick-off session of the ’26 Unusual Collaborations (UCo) programme last Monday. The UCo programme is offered as part of the transition CUCo is currently going through: a shift from funding to capacity-building.
Read more about the ’26 UCo programme
With the UCo programme, CUCo aims to create a supportive environment for unusual inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) collaborations by providing teams with time, space, expert and peer support, and funding.
The UCo programme consists of a series of five meetings throughout the year, which double as pilot sessions for CUCo’s new learning journey. The learning journey is simultaneously being developed by a working group including several CUCo-affiliated researchers and the CUCo team.
To start, teams were invited to reflect on their own collaboration so far: starting with individual journaling, followed by a discussion within the team (sharing circle). This exercise reflected the two first stages of CUCo’s empathy map, a tool originally designed to explore different perspectives on a theme and how they are rooted in disciplinary traditions, but can be adapted to check in at a later stage of an ongoing collaboration.
With their newly gained insights in mind, the teams then each convened separately to work together for a while. By providing teams with the time and space to work together, CUCo intends to spare them the time-consuming task of scheduling team meetings throughout the year.
The UCo programme is deliberately designed not as a course, but as an open-ended learning environment tailored specifically to the teams’ needs. The afternoon was therefore wrapped up with a collective harvest aimed at co-designing the following sessions. Teams appreciated the opportunity to integrate new people into their team and the wider CUCo community at the same time.
Participants differed in their preferences regarding the extent to which the sessions should be structured, as well as whether it should revolve around their own respective teams or focus on exchanging experiences with other teams. Their input will be used in trying to find the right balance in the sessions ahead.
The next session of the UCo programme is scheduled for late March. CUCo hopes to announce more details about its new learning journey by then as well.
