T
his paper explores t
he relations
hips and division of tasks and responsibilities (boundary arrangements) between resear
ch and stake
holders in poli
cy pro
cesses in
competing
claims
contexts. T
he paper starts from t
he idea t
hat better understanding about t
he role of resear
ch in multi-stake
holder poli
cy pro
cesses requires going beyond t
he resear
ch-poli
cy interfa
ce, by analysing boundary arrangements at multiple resear
ch-stake
holder interfa
ces. T
he paper des
cribes five episodes in t
he poli
cy debate on biofuel sustainability in Mozambique. Wit
hin ea
ch episode, t
he boundary arrangements at t
he different resear
ch-stake
holder interfa
ces in relation to t
he poli
cy
context, resear
ch a
ctivities and stake
holder dynami
cs inside and outside t
he poli
cy arena are des
cribed and analysed.
The analysis creates awareness about the complexities, pitfalls and opportunities of actively engaging in multi-stakeholder policy processes, as this is likely to result in situations where multiple boundary arrangements at different research-stakeholder interfaces co-emerge and coexist. The direction in which boundary arrangements at a research-stakeholder interface develop over time is affected by the credibility, legitimacy and salience of the research as perceived by the specific stakeholder group, the changing policy context and boundary arrangements at other research-stakeholder interfaces. Different boundary arrangements relating to policy content and policy process can coexist at a research-stakeholder interface. Furthermore, boundary arrangements show patterns of path dependency in terms of their credibility, legitimacy and salience for different stakeholders through time.