How can professional beekeepers and researchers explore shared challenges – and learn from each other?
The Tandem Experiment: Beekeeping in the Agricultural System (TIA) is a project led by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF). TIA connects professional beekeepers from Eastern Brandenburg and Hessen with researchers from a range of disciplines. The project also explores the role of professional beekeeping within changing agricultural systems and regional landscapes.
city2science supports the project by designing and facilitating the tandem process. Our role is to uncover perspectives and interests on both sides, identify promising connections, and create the conditions for trust, mutual learning and collaboration on equal terms.
The process starts with the realities of professional beekeeping. What challenges are businesses facing today? Where do they see a need for change or new knowledge? And where could research offer useful new perspectives? Initial interviews have revealed a surprisingly broad range of topics – from business organisation, leadership and economic viability to marketing, regional cooperation, resilience, and the relationship between research and practice.
Researchers are now being invited to bring their own questions, expertise and interests into the conversation. Based on these perspectives, city2science and ZALF will identify potential tandems and design and facilitate a series of joint workshops.
The tandem process is itself an experiment: What does it take for practitioners and researchers to develop questions together? How can expertise flow in both directions? And how can an initial encounter grow into a longer-term partnership?
TIA provides a practical testing ground for co-creation and knowledge exchange between research and practice – exploring how shared questions can develop into new ideas, joint research activities and longer-term partnerships.
