Concept mapping has generally been used as a means to increase the depth and breadth of understanding within a particular knowledge domain or discipline. In this paper we trace the deployment of collaborative concept mapping by a research team in higher education and analyse its effectiveness using the crime metaphor of motive, means, and opportunity. This case study exemplifies two iterations of the research team’s collaborative concept map and shows how the process of the construction of such maps enabled the opportunity for team dialogue and coconstruction that was focused, hands-on, and visual. The concept mapping process provided the team with a meaning-making mechanism through which to share understandings and explore the team’s potential capacities. 1. Introduction In an effort to address the quality and impact of research, higher education institutions have invested in research capacity building initiatives including those that leverage the expertise and relationships within research collaborations and teams. Yet, the various methods and tools appropriate for understanding and building research capacity within research teams remain underexplored. This paper reports on a case study of a collaborative concept mapping process (CCM) with an educational research team located at a regional Australian university. We argue that collaborative concept mapping is an exercise that embodies effective capacity building processes by enabling exploration, articulation, and negotiation of shared motives and opportunities for research team development. We undertake this journey by first conceptualising capacity and the building of research capacity as it appears in the literature. We then move to CCM and argue how it is well suited as a capacity building process. Next we introduce the case study per se, summarise the research team’s first experience with CCM, and highlight and explore the refinements made with the team’s second attempt. The paper culminates with an analysis of CCM as a capacity building process in relation to the means, motives, and opportunity framework of Britton as deployed by James and Wrigley [1]. 1.1. Conceptualising Capacity Building Broadly, capacity building stimulates desired development and change for individuals, organisations, and communities. Yet, capacity building has an intangibility that “makes it the stuff of myth or magic” [2, page 210]. First, capacity building as a concept has been described as a mysterious, elusive, confused, and misinterpreted, with numerous definitions present in the literature [1–4]. Further, capacity
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