Nurturing the Roots: A Review of Universities' Intermediary Strategies for Supporting Environmental Grassroots

Green grassroot movements like agroecological food networks and renewable energy communities are vital for creating sustainable futures. However, as these niche-actors usually operate in opposition to or outside the regime level of incumbent market and political institutions, they face challenges in terms of connecting, accelerating, and scaling their practices. University researchers have been suggested as suitable intermediary brokers that can catalyze complex innovation and sustainability processes as they are usually trusted by both niche and regime actors. But conceptualizations of researchers’ intermediary strategies for nurturing green grassroots have been based on limited empirical cases. Through a systematic literature review, we aim to fill this gap. The study provides a conceptualization of the universities’ intermediary strategies in continuous societal innovation processes, i.e., their aim, strategies, and concrete activities, for mediating and supporting grassroots initiatives. We also discuss the success conditions and barriers involved in the selected cases and points to future research areas.