For a week from 26 February to 1 March 2024, the members of the In-Forest team gathered in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Hosted by Prof. Nelius Boshoff (co-PI of the project) at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Stellenbosch University, it served as the second fully in-person meeting for our research group.

The face-to-face interactions in Stellenbosch provided an opportunity to share our progress in each of the work packages, discuss data and on-going analyses, and plan concrete steps for the rest of the time in the project. Given the multiple methods approach we apply in our study, our meetings serve as an open and supportive space to arrive at shared understandings, bring in fresh perspectives and reflections to each of our different specializations. By incorporating analytical workshops and discussion sessions, we worked on the joint interpretation of findings and conceptualised papers to be submitted throughout 2024. 

Although we expect this meeting to be the last meeting with all members attending in-person, we made significant progress in crystallising our research. We have positive outlooks for the outcomes of the project, which we will continue to share at up-coming scientific events but also with the scholars and research groups participating in our study.