We recognise that within collaborative projects there is a cooperating community of stakeholders that undertake various roles.
The introductions to our definitions of the various stakeholders for whom we have developed recommendations should not be read as suggesting that they are always easily identified and distinguished. We recognise that many CSO-based participants have a research background themselves and often come from, go to or are partly employed by research organisations such as universities. Similar observations hold true for the other stakeholder groups as well. Individuals working for funders tend to have a scientific background and are often employed by research organisations at some stage in their career. This is even true for the relationship between CSOs and industry where many charities, for example, have boards that include industry representation, so that a senior manager may at the same time represent a significant civil society organisation and maybe even the public interest.