Co-developing criteria and indicators for evaluating a transdisciplinary climate and health project

This paper outlines the participatory development of evaluation criteria and indicators for a transdisciplinary research (TDR) project, Policy and Implementation for Climate & Health Equity (PAICE). PAICE investigates complex systemic links between climate action, health, and health equity, focusing on translating evidence into UK policy and practice. TDR is increasingly used to integrate diverse disciplines and knowledge to tackle navigate, understand and address complex societal challenges like climate change. Within this project TDR is being adopted as our underlying theory in the development, delivery and evaluation of the project. The project brings together researchers in systems thinking, modelling, epidemiology, building physics, and members of the Climate Change Committee and regional government (the GLA). Evaluating TDR and the multiple facets of perceived success remains challenging due to the absence of standard methodologies, as disciplinary methodological and quality standards are often unsuitable. PAICE seeks to enhance societal engagement in climate change mitigation and adaptation research through ex-ante and ex-post evaluation techniques of TDR. This paper details the novel co-development of a monitoring, evaluation, and learning plan to track progress toward TDR processes, outputs, outcomes, and impacts. Participatory workshops and surveys were used to screen and assess evaluation criteria and indicators, involving researchers, statutory bodies, and local authorities. Indicators for research legitimacy, credibility, positioning for use, and TDR processes and outcomes were assessed against specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) criteria. The relative importance of criteria and indicators was derived, enabling disciplinary and group-level priority mapping. Understanding differences in disciplinary and organisational priorities supports deeper analysis of indicator performance across PAICE work streams. This enhances reflexive learning for all stakeholders throughout the TDR project and provides focused feedback on processes and outcomes related to mitigation and adaptation TDR research.