Highstead Foundation

Request for Proposals

Research Contractor in 

Collaborative Landscape Conservation

Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2026

Background 

Highstead Foundation (Highstead) is a regional non-profit conservation organization dedicated to inspiring curiosity and building knowledge about plants and wooded landscapes to enhance life, preserve nature, and advance sound stewardship practices. We envision a healthier, more livable world for all by working with our partners to responsibly conserve the land that sustains us and to thoughtfully and inclusively steward our natural spaces, resources, and communities.  

Since 2007, Highstead has invested in developing regional conservation partnerships (RCPs). RCPs accelerate and advance the practice of collaborative landscape conservation across organizational and political boundaries in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, as do other collaboration models globally.  

In 2013, the Journal of Forestry published Highstead’s research on RCPs in New England, which identified key factors that led some to protect land from development for wildlife habitat faster than others. Building on those findings and the contributions of many RCP coordinators, the RCP Handbook was published in 2015, helping those seeking to establish, navigate the challenges, and reap the benefits of working as an RCP, primarily in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. 

However, with rising threats of climate change, increased demand for affordable housing, renewable energy, and a more secure regional food system, and growing awareness of the need to center land justice in conservation, RCPs struggle to have a positive impact across these sectors and amid these cross-cutting challenges. They believe they need greater collaborative capacity, including more time for their coordinators to serve as boundary spanners, to engage partners from other sectors. 

In collaborative landscape conservation, few U.S. funders are willing to support collaborative processes, even though they seek outcomes for problems entrenched in complex socio-ecological systems, such as the land-use system. Practitioners and researchers have sought to identify the most essential elements of collaborative landscape conservation, and there’s growing awareness of the need to support RCPs and other collaboratives in working across sectors. However, there is currently little research identifying which elements of RCPs most lead to positive, on-the-ground outcomes across multiple objectives. Perhaps funders could assist RCPs in developing essential ingredients by providing financial support for those factors proven most essential.

Highstead, which seeks to contribute to this growing body of knowledge, has convened a group of researchers with deep expertise in RCPs and collaborative landscape conservation in California, Colorado, the Intermountain West, and the Eastern United States. The team includes PhDs at Colorado State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Maine at Orono, as well as practitioners with decades of experience in the field. The researchers aim to understand what it takes for RCPs to perform cross-sector landscape conservation work effectively. 

Scope of Work

The purpose of this RFP is to receive cost-efficient proposals for two products: a literature review (including both traditional and systematic methods) focused on identifying papers that provide case studies, frameworks, and lists of variables critical to helping RCPs achieve on-the-ground outcomes across multiple sectors; and a compilation of RCPs and RCP-like groups within and outside of the United States. 

The Research Contractor will be required to attend monthly one-hour to 90-minute Zoom meetings of the research team, actively contributing to the discussions; maintain well-documented notes on research tasks and outcomes; adhere to ethical procedures concerning human subjects; and prepare a final summary of all tasks accomplished.

The selected contractor will work with a subset of the research team, as needed, with communication via Zoom or in person, as appropriate. The applicant must submit a proposal to generate products for each of the main components listed below. 

Literature Review (To be completed by July 1, 2026)

The team is using a mixed methods approach to our literature review to 1) answer core questions we have that will help us make the case for why we’re doing this research, and 2) inform social science inquiries that will follow this review.  

In order to do this, we are utilizing a traditional literature review, as well as a systemic review, which will apply search strings to databases such as SCOPUS to find additional research articles on subjects that speak to effectiveness of multi-stakeholder initiatives, partnerships, collaboratives, and processes (and other terms) whether that be an individual case study or a synthesis paper laying out common factors involved in advancing cross sector collaboration. 

The literature review activities will support our interviews and survey. We are looking for articles that include lists of factors for successful cross-sector collaboration and the factors most closely correlated with on-the-ground outcomes, which we can ask about in interviews and the survey.

Compile List of RCP-like Collaboratives (To be completed by July 1, 2026)

Work with Hightstead staff and their contacts to compile, in stages, a database of prospective RCP-like collaboratives for interviews and the survey, with the highest-priority regions first and the lowest last: United States, Canada, Australia, Africa, Central America, Europe, India, East Asia. 

Additional Potential Task Areas for the Research Contractor

The Research Contractor may be involved in additional tasks, beginning after July 1, 2026, depending on the duration of the first two tasks and funding availability. 

Develop Interview Questions (To be completed by September 2026)

Based on the traditional and systematic literature review findings, assist the team in developing a draft list of interview questions.

Interviews and Coding the Transcripts (To be completed by January 2027 and March 2027, respectively) 

Assist the research team in identifying 20 RCP leaders for interviews and coding the results. Assist the research team in using a qualitative analysis approach to identify the factors most strongly correlated with on-the-ground outcomes. Since much of the literature the team has reviewed addresses initiatives in other countries, the interviews will include one or more from continents where we know there are collaboratives like those in the US.

Survey (To be completed by July 2027)

Based on the qualitative analysis of the interviews, we assume the survey could be relatively brief and focused. The Research Contractor could aid the team in formulating and distributing the survey.