Community of Practice Roadmap and Facilitation Guidelines

“In NextGen, stakeholders are involved through Communities of Practice (CoPs), organized in four face-to-face meetings at each demo case. The CoPs aim to create an engagement environment around the demonstrated circular water innovations in which stakeholders across the water value chain interact and collaborate. The relevant stakeholders differ for each demo case. In general, these will include the water industry (operators), authorities (regulators), engineering companies, consultants, research institutes, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and potential end-users. Organising and moderating the CoPs
This document provides a roadmap and facilitation guidelines for the CoPs. First, the approach for setting up and managing the CoPs is described. An important role is given to the organiser (coordinator) who is responsible for managing the CoP. In the case of NextGen, the CoP organiser is, the formal contact person of the demo case, i.e. either a representative of the demo case end-user or of the related research organization. The CoP organiser will be supported by the NextGen WP3 staff, as we appreciate this can be a demanding task.
The CoP organiser is also responsible for selecting a moderator (or if possessing the right skills, may choose to fulfil this task by him or herself). The main task of the CoP moderator is to create a conducive environment for knowledge exchange and learning. Conditions have to be created to facilitate open dialogue whereas individuals collectively develop new knowledge by making use of the diversity of perspectives and understandings at hand. An overview of moderation techniques is provided for the moderator to apply.
Monitoring outcomes is also an important requirement. The CoP organisers are responsible for the reporting of the meetings. The reporting format for NextGen CoP meetings is provided in Annex III. These CoP reports are essential input to the cross-fertilisation and reflexive learning between the different CoPs.”

(Citaat: Brouwer, S., Bouziotas, D., Frijns, J.A.G. – Community of Practice Roadmap and Facilitation Guidelines – NextGen D3.1 (2018))