ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses shift in context and in the way water policy was being made gave rise to the two interrelated projects. It starts with a description of a week in the life of a transdisciplinary researcher and the failures experienced in two related case studies In many ways the Matrix of Good Management Project was a genuine attempt at co-development of science for policy. Environment Canterbury wanted the right faces at the table, but they wanted them there to lend robustness, credibility and legitimacy to their policy approach, not to draw on the diverse expertise in the team on achieving on-farm change. However, in order to learn and increase both capability and capacity for undertaking transdisciplinary research, the readers need to be able to examine successes and learn from failures, as individuals and the projects, and as a community of transdisciplinary researchers.
