This year's ITD24 Conference “Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Beyond Buzzwords: Educational Pathways for Sustainable Research Collaborations” took place from November 9 to 8, 2024 in Utrecht (Netherlands) and focused on three topics: The improvement of theoretical foundations, capacity building and the broadening and deepening of education and training in inter- and transdisciplinarity. This short report presents the three contributions of tdAcademy members that dealt with societal impact and the interface “societal and scientific impact”.
Workshop „Fostering effectiveness of transdisciplinary research by reflecting possible impact pathways“
Source: Jana Semrau, 2024; From left to right: Stephanie Moser, Martina Schäfer, Emilia Nagy, Oskar Marg, Chantal Krumm
As research is increasingly expected to address complex real-world problems and achieve social impact, there is a corresponding need for suitable methods to conceptualize, evaluate and analyze the contribution of research projects to change processes. In their workshop, Martina Schäfer, Emilia Nagy (both ZTG - Center for Technology and Society/Technical University of Berlin), Oskar Marg, Michael Kreß-Ludwig and Chantal Krumm (both ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research) as well as Stephanie Moser (University of Bern) addressed the potential of impact pathways, which represent plausible links between research activities and results with societal impacts, for planning and evaluating the societal effectiveness of td research. After a brief introduction of their respective research backgrounds, Martina Schäfer presented the impact pathway models developed in various international research projects:
- Model for practice-oriented projects with an experimental phase (Kreß-Ludwig et al., 2024)
- Model for pathways of td research on sustainable urban transformation (Nagy et al., 2023)
- Model with three generic mechanisms of impact generation in sustainable td research (Schneider et al., 2019)
Source: Jana Semrau, 2024; Oskar Marg and Chantal Krumm (ISOE) with participants
Afterwards, the 30 participants discussed the added value of the respective models for transdisciplinary research projects in three groups as well as the challenges and needs for improvement that arise with regard to applicability. Finally, the results of the discussion rounds were summarized in a plenary session. Stefanie Moser was a Fellow of the tdAcademy and reported on the results of the workshop in. The session was conceived as a result of her collaboration with the ZTG and ISOE. You can find the report here.
Kreß-Ludwig, M., Marg, O., Schneider, R., Lux, A. (2024). Lessons from transdisciplinary urban research to promote sustainability transformation in real-world labs. Categories, pathways, and key principles for generating societal impact. GAIA 33(1), 10 – 17
Nagy, E., Schäfer, M., & Roth, C. (2023). Innovative Ideen aus dem ländlichen Raum. Barnim & Uckermark im Wandel. Zenodo. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.10572383
Schneider, F., Giger, M., Harari, N., Moser, S., Oberlack, C., Providoli, I., ... & Zimmer-mann, A. (2019). Transdisciplinary co-production of knowledge and sustainability transformations: Three generic mechanisms of impact generation. Environmental Science & Policy, 102, 26-35.
Poster „Fostering reflective impact orientation in transdisciplinary research – a multi-method workshop format“
Martina Schäfer, Emilia Nagy and Jasmin Wiefek also presented the impact workshop concept developed together with Josefa Kny (formerly ZTG and tdAcademy) as in a poster session. The poster presents the most important steps of the workshop format as well as the key competencies that are acquired through the application and testing of the format. The poster was presented in the session “How to integrate inclusion in higher education? An exhibition of innovative teaching and learning formats in different regions” organized by Sabine Hoffmann (EAWAG - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and Bianca Vienni-Baptista (ETH Zurich).
Session „Synergies and trade-offs between scientific and societal effects“
Quelle: Stephanie Moser, 2024; Von links nach rechts: Emilia Nagy, Lena Theiler, Oskar Marg
Source: Stephanie Moser 2024, From left to right: Emilia Nagy, Lena Theiler, Oskar Marg
It is challenging to pursue both social and scientific impact in a research process. Interface 1 “Societal and scientific effects” has been addressing the implications of this challenge since the start of the second funding phase of the tdAcademy. In the session “Synergies and trade-offs between scientific and societal effects”, Lena Theiler, Emilia Nagy and Oskar Marg presented the results of their empirical work and discussed them with other researchers. In particular, they addressed the identified opportunities and challenges arising from the simultaneous scientific and societal orientation. The participants found many points of reference in their own research practice and asked many questions. Finally, promising individual and institutional strategies were discussed that reinforce the added value of the transdisciplinary research mode and successfully address the challenges.
Marg, O., & Theiler, L. (2023). Effects of transdisciplinary research on scientific knowledge and reflexivity. Research Evaluation, 32(4), 635-647.
Lux, A., Schäfer, M., Bergmann, M., Jahn, T., Marg, O., Nagy, E., ... & Theiler, L. (2019). Societal effects of transdisciplinary sustainability research—How can they be strengthened during the research process?. Environmental Science & Policy, 101, 183-191.
Schäfer, M., Bergmann, M., & Theiler, L. (2021). Systematizing societal effects of transdisciplinary research. Research Evaluation, 30(4), 484-499.