Co-production of research with local government can be counter-productive due to underlying structural power imbalances (‘dark side’). To overcome this, we identified 6 building block in our paper, defining co-production simultaneously as a process, codification, and capacity 1/6

A contextual & iterative process of shifting roles and power between LG & academia that codifies different types of knowledge at various stages, requiring capacity within LG to absorb co-produced knowledge and new governance structures to sustain its use (adaptive governance) 2/6

The goal of co-production is not to increase use of research in policymaking but to create new forms of governance that produce required knowledge and social dynamics to act on it. We applied the 6 building blocks to views of 54 LG staff who participated in 4 UK workshops on 3/6

Our analysis show that national and local policies need to be integrated, with local system approaches and evaluations helping to codify research evidence, while relationships between academia & LG are key to overcome cultural barriers for embedding co-produced knowledge ... 4/6

and to create a shared understanding of fragmented local policymaking. To support this, collective spaces for reflection within LG need to be developed that facilitate the 6 building blocks and support new governance arrangements, providing nurturing ground for co-production 5/6

At the end of our paper, we make recommendations for researchers, practitioners and policy makers to embed these collective reflection spaces in LG. Download the free paper here: https://rdcu.be/cesKm  6/6 Any feedback welcome!