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Consultation, co-design or co-creation: choosing the level per work package

Participation is not one thing, and a project does not need the same depth of it everywhere. The practical move is to pick a level for each work package (WP), name the framework the level comes from, and write down what participants will be able to influence.

Four reference frameworks

FrameworkLevelsWhat it measures
Arnstein's ladder (1969)Eight rungs: manipulation, therapy, informing, consultation, placation, partnership, delegated power, citizen controlHow much decision power citizens hold. The rungs are grouped into non-participation, tokenism and citizen power.
IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation (2018 version)Inform, consult, involve, collaborate, empowerThe public's role in a decision. Each level has a goal and a "promise to the public".
Haklay's levels of citizen science (2013)Crowdsourcing, distributed intelligence, participatory science, extreme citizen scienceHow much of the research process participants take part in, from acting as sensors to defining the problem and analysing data.
Horizon Europe Programme Guide (V5.1, 15 September 2025)Co-design, co-creation, co-assessmentThe stage of research and innovation (R&I) that citizens, civil society and end-users take part in.

Arnstein places consultation in the tokenism group, because being heard does not by itself give any power over the outcome. Haklay, in contrast, argues that his typology should not carry a strong value judgement: a project can legitimately sit at a lower level, although he sees benefits in moving to the highest level that suits the specific project. The level has to match what the WP can really hand over.

What Horizon Europe means by the three "co-" words

The Programme Guide defines engagement as involving citizens and civil society in co-designing R&I agendas, co-creating R&I contents, or co-assessing R&I outcomes.

  • Co-design covers workshops, focus groups or other means to develop R&I agendas, roadmaps or policies. These can be one-off events or repeated consultations, so consultation sits inside co-design in Horizon Europe vocabulary.
  • Co-creation involves citizens or end-users directly in developing new knowledge or innovations, for example through citizen science or user-led innovation. The guide notes a range of levels, from identifying research questions to publishing results.
  • Co-assessment means helping to monitor and evaluate a project, a portfolio, a policy or a programme.

The guide already thinks in work packages. It says co-design can be the focus of a whole project, a WP whose outcomes are used in later WPs, or a supporting WP that gives feedback throughout the project.

Choosing the level for one work package

These steps are a suggestion built on the sources above, not an official procedure.

  1. List what is still open in the WP. If the research question, the method and the technology are fixed by the topic text or by earlier WPs, participants can only comment. That is consultation, and it is more accurate to call it that.
  2. Name the stage. Agenda and requirements point to co-design. Producing data, knowledge or prototypes points to co-creation. Reviewing results points to co-assessment.
  3. Name the depth with a second framework. Use the IAP2 level for decisions, or Haklay's level for citizen science tasks.
  4. Write the promise. IAP2 attaches a promise to every level. At "consult" it is to listen, acknowledge concerns and report back how input influenced the decision. At "empower" it is to implement what the public decides. A WP description that states its promise can be checked later.
  5. Show where the output goes. The Programme Guide asks that engagement outcomes are used in the project and are not "window dressing", and that participants receive feedback and acknowledgement. Name the task or deliverable that receives the result.
  6. Budget for it. The guide states that engagement requires resources and expertise and is often run by dedicated organisations that already have reach and trust.

How to state it

One sentence per WP is enough, for example: "WP2: co-design (IAP2 level: involve). Residents shape the selection criteria in three workshops, the consortium takes the final decision and reports back." A table with one row per WP (stage, level, participants, receiving deliverable) keeps the proposal consistent.

Sources