Table 1 Enabling factors that build the transformative capacity of City university partnerships

ADDRESS HISTORY AND PAST CONFLICT TO CREATE A FOUNDATION OF TRUST AND RESPECT

Quite often new City-university collaborations are forged without a clear understanding of the organizational history and challenges that can can be the source of trust and mistrust. This may result from a desire to focus on the future (Kalayjian and Paloutzian 2009), a lack of understanding of current and former collaborative relationships between the organizations (Zielke et al. 2021; Keeler et al. 2018), or a sense that because individuals involved in the current partnership did not take part in activities (that engendered mistrust) that it is not their responsibility. A transformative partnership is a long-term effort and therefore needs to be built on strong relationships and a foundation of trust (Allen et al. 2017). Part of building that trust requires accounting for and addressing past wrongs. If this factor is not addressed up front it corrodes the potential impact of the partnership

EXPAND THE PARTNERSHIP TO ENCOMPASS TRANSFORMATIONAL GOALS THAT CAN INFORM DISCRETE

PROJECTS

City-university partnerships most often form around discrete actions and programs with specific timeline and deliverables. This approach can get a collaboration moving, but can miss the opportunity to see and organize around the larger transformation. When facing sustainability crises, scholars argue that we must take a “systemic and integrated” approach to the problem or we will fail to address the pernicious root causes (Yarime 2012)

INVEST IN THE RELATIONSHIPS THAT UNDERPIN THE PARTNERSHIP

In a City-university partnership there is a limited amount of energy that collaborators provide. Quite often the energy will be heavily weighted towards the specific project – which constrains the amount of time needed for relationship development. Achieving transformative outcomes together requires shared commitment engendered through relationship development at multiple levels of each organization. A transformative partnership requires that time be spent building relationships and understanding between people across organizations in order to motivate long-term engagement in the partnership and the sustainability transformations sought (Allen et al. 2017; Caughman et al. 2020)

ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN THE NORMS AND STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT TRANSFORMATION

Organizational norms and processes are needed to facilitate long-term, cross-organizational collaborative work and these often do not exist (or are not attended to) in City-university partnerships. This can be specific to engaging in the partnership or specific to the capabilities of the organization. For example, universities may not incentivize engaging in partnership activities because they do not translate directly to traditional metrics of academic success, such as publications. Cities can experience high turnover, scarce resources, or lack of capacity that limit their ability to support engagement in partnership activities over the long term. Overcoming this limitation requires organizational transformations that redefine roles, structures and norms to address the complex sustainability challenge (Keeler et al. 2018)

DESIGN ACTIONS THAT ARE DEEPLY MOTIVATING

Research on City-university partnerships has shown that collaborations are more durable and effective when actors on both sides of the partnership have high levels of motivation to engage (Keeler et al. 2018; Caughman et al. 2020). Motivation comes from engaging in collaborative activities that are mutually beneficial and perceived to have an impact. When motivation is lacking, the collaborative work demands too much of a single collaborator (the City or the university stakeholders); this limits the capacity for co-creation and can fracture the relationship