Sustainability transitions in manufacturing require new competences and organisational learning. This paper presents Schedazioni, a learner-led assessment tool that helps companies analyse past sustainable design actions. Developed through case studies and a Research-through-Design process, and piloted in industry, it enables teams to map transformations, identify problems, and reflect on impacts. By shifting assessment to internal sensemaking, it supports shared understanding and strengthens sustainability capability.

Despite the growing application of behavioural science in public policy, progress in many countries has been slow. This study explores the challenges in applying behavioural insights (BI) to policymaking and identifies potential solutions. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 12 behavioural science experts who have worked with national governments or international bodies across 39 countries. Using inductive content analysis, we discovered three main challenges perceived by the experts: limited knowledge and misunderstandings of BI among stakeholders, constraints within the public policy environment, and resource limitations in both BI units and public administrations. The experts also highlighted strategies to build capacity within the public sector, including creating peer networks, partnering with external experts, organising targeted training programmes, and providing supportive tools and resources. We interpret these findings through the lens of navigating complex adaptive systems, distinguishing between ordered problems – amenable to transferable solutions – and genuinely complex problems requiring participatory approaches and contextual adaptation. Advancing contextual understanding of behavioural science in policy may require distinguishing challenges that permit efficient solutions from those demanding slower, relationship-based sense-making.

Despite substantial investment in clinical and translational research, only a small proportion of evidence-based interventions are adopted and sustained in routine practice, contributing to persistent delays between discovery and population benefit. Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science is a critical discipline for addressing this gap, and the NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program (established 2006) has been strategically positioned as a national infrastructure to advance D&I capacity. We conducted a national environmental scan of publicly available websites and documents from all 66 CTSA hubs (May–July 2025), using a structured extraction tool to capture D&I-specific activities across seven domains: institution and community partnerships, formal D&I organizational structures within the CTSA, consultation services, collaborative programming, training opportunities, educational offerings, and pilot funding mechanisms. Findings reveal substantial heterogeneity in D&I science activities across CTSA hubs; 45% had a formal D&I unit, 54% offered D&I consultation services, and 37% provided collaborative programming. Structured workforce development was limited: 12% offered D&I-focused training grants, 15% offered structured educational programs, and 15% provided D&I-specific pilot funding. Consultation models varied widely in scope, access, and evaluation practices. These findings demonstrate uneven development of D&I science infrastructure across CTSAs and highlight opportunities to strengthen capacity nationally.

Since its establishment in 2005, the HTAi Patient and Citizen Involvement in HTA Interest Group (PCIG) has worked to strengthen health technology assessment (HTA) by systematically incorporating patient and citizen perspectives. Over two decades, PCIG has advanced this goal through multistakeholder projects and collaborations that have produced practical tools, guidance, and methods to support patient involvement in HTA worldwide. Through global knowledge exchange, PCIG has fostered shared learning and capacity building for inclusive, participatory HTA. Its work continues to drive a shift in the mindset of the HTA community – from passive consultation to active partnership with patients and citizens – and encourages investment in robust research to understand patient perspectives. As health systems increasingly aim to reflect lived experiences and community values to improve the implementation and impact of services, PCIG’s journey offers a compelling example of the long-term value of collective action, sustained engagement, and meaningful involvement in HTA.

As Ukraine works to modernize its healthcare system and align with international standards, integrating health technology assessment (HTA) into the national decision-making process has become a strategic priority. While HTA practices for pharmaceuticals have advanced, substantial gaps persist in the evaluation of medical devices (MDs), which require distinct methodological approaches given their characteristics. This article presents the rationale, development, implementation, and results of a comprehensive online training program aimed at building national capacity in the MD assessment. The program targeted 71 Ukrainian professionals with prior experience in pharmaceutical evaluation but limited exposure to MD. Through 40 hours of live online sessions delivered from September to December 2024, the course emphasized interactive learning, contextual adaptation, and international best practices. Assessments showed significant knowledge gains, with 87 percent of participants completing the program successfully. The initiative demonstrates that targeted, competency-based training can enhance national HTA capacity and may serve as a model for other transitioning healthcare systems.

The 2025 Evaluation Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting at the Association for Clinical and Translational Science conference brought together clinical and translational science (CTS) professionals to address evolving challenges in translational science evaluation. The meeting presentations and discussions addressed concept mapping for commonly used metrics, continuous quality improvement (CQI) practices, translational science impact evaluation, and evaluator toolkit development. Key themes and lessons learned included the tension between institution-specific and network-wide evaluation goals, the need for standardized yet flexible evaluation frameworks, and persistent barriers including limited staffing capacity and data ownership challenges. Facilitators identified included diverse CQI approaches, the evolving frameworks, and collaborative evaluation practices. Convened during a time of increasing research funding uncertainty and accountability, the meeting underscored the urgency of strengthening evaluation capacity to sustain the impact of CTS, highlighting both the enduring value of heterogeneous evaluation approaches and the critical need for coordinated CTS evaluation strategies to demonstrate impact and secure continued funding support.

Grassroots organizations have a central place in service provision within many urban communities, particularly as they work with young people. Enhancing the potential of youth serving organizations is vital as many of these small groups lack infrastructure and resources. One organization has gone beyond grant making to organizations to include providing technical assistance, then moving to a model of capacity building to improve their ability to fulfill their mission. This paper describes the efforts of New Detroit to improve the infrastructure of youth serving grassroots organizations through a multi-faceted model and the outcomes evidenced from the first cohort. In addition we explore the contradictions inherent in working with small groups. How do you improve effectiveness without destroying the “homegrown” character these groups possess? The model presented here shows the value of empowering small grassroots groups to build capacity.

Nonprofits have unique strategic concerns, including their dependence on external resources, the management of multiple stakeholders, perceptions about their organizational legitimacy as well as their primary focus on the social value of their organizational mission (Stone and Brush 1996). For shared Jewish–Arab organizations in Israel that are seeking to promote a ‘shared society,’ the obstacles in navigating these various challenges are particularly pronounced and require a very unique kind of adaptive capacity (see Letts et al. 1999; Connolly and York 2003; Strichman et al. 2007). Often operating outside of the general consensus, these organizations are faced with the significant challenge of promoting values of partnership, equality and mutual interests among two populations that are often at odds. This research seeks to shed light on how shared Arab–Jewish nonprofits are continually working to strengthen organizational capacities to more effectively carry out their particular organizational mission, given the myriad of challenges they face.

The purpose of this paper is to present and develop a firmer grasp of the underlying dimensions of organizational capacity in nonprofit human service organizations. The paper draws on the resource-based view of the organization (Barney et al. in Journal of Management 37:1299, 2011; Wernerfelt in Strategic Management Journal 5:171, 1984), which recognizes that organizational attributes and capabilities facilitate performance. Interviews were conducted with 66 executives in moderate sized, human service organizations to discuss factors that influence performance. Findings suggest that human, financial, and social capital all contribute to organizational performance. Executives emphasized the quality of people associated with the organization including the role of the board of directors in supporting performance. Many respondents also believed that maintaining healthy and dynamic external relationships was critical to success.