A Collaborative Climate

The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) catalyzes research, partnerships, and knowledge that drive climate action. The objective was to deliver on PICS’ 2017-2024 Strategic Plan across six pillars: energy; transport; the built environment; the natural environment; negative emissions; and policy.

I joined a lean, cross-functional team that shared responsibility for program design and implementation. My work centred on the flagship Theme Partnership Program, adjudicating proposals on technical merits, and building coproduction capacity. Coproduction is the defining feature of the PICS approach. Unlike conventional grantmaking, coproduction requires active involvement in team formation, project design, and execution to ensure research is directly shaped by and for solution-seekers.

The process can be messy and context specific, but the results are outcomes relevant to users pursuing effective mitigation and adaptation policies and actions. Our programming strengthened partnerships, deepened engagement, and helped solution-seekers become solution-makers – from question to collaboration, and idea to action.

An external review affirmed our coproduction approach’s impact on generating catalytic research, and also concluded that that the Themes Partnership Program, in particular, produced a substantial body of original, high-quality climate solutions research. Our last cohort’s achievements are showcased in Annual Report 2022–2024: Collaboration as a Response to Climate Change ...which I also largely developed.