Running a Real-World Lab to Stimulate Urban Food System Transformation: Navigating Between Different Actor Roles as a Transdisciplinary Researcher

Real-world LabsReal-world labs are increasingly used to catalyse systemic change by creating experimental spaces in which knowledge co-creation is stimulated among actors from the domains of research, business, policy, and civil society, known as the quadruple helix. However, relatively little attention is given to the challenge of facilitating such transformative Labs as a transdisciplinary researcher. In this chapter, Alanya den Boer reflects on her learning journey as a PhD researcher who conducted transdisciplinary research. She elaborates on the roles she adopted and the role synergies and conflicts that she faced during the course of a project in the field of food system transformation. The chapter ends with a critical discussion and a set of recommendations for the design and architecture of future projects that aim to stimulate system transformation via transdisciplinary Real-world labs approaches.