The Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance) aims to promote inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation to tackle global challenges. Once a year, it organizes an international conference as a platform for the exchange of best practices, research results and the strengthening of networks between different disciplines and sectors. Once again this year, numerous members of the tdAcademy are taking advantage of this opportunity and are represented with their own contributions. This year's ITD24 “Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Beyond Buzzwords: Educational Pathways for Sustainable Research Collaborations” will take place from November 4 to 8 2024 in Utrecht (the Netherlands) and will focus on three topics: The improvement of theoretical foundations, capacity building and the broadening and deepening of education and training in inter- and transdisciplinarity. In this update, we would like to give you an overview of the contributions we will be making and look forward to welcoming you there and discussing them with you.
Societal impact
As research is increasingly expected to address complex real-world problems and have a societal 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 “Fostering effectiveness of transdisciplinary research by reflecting possible impact pathways”, Martina Schäfer, Emilia Nagy (both ZTG - Center for Technology and Society/Technische Universtität Berlin), Oskar Marg, Michael Kreß-Ludwig (both ISOE - Institute for Social-Ecological Research) and Stephanie Moser (University of Bern) will address the potential of impact pathways to link research activities and results with desired societal effects. The workshop will present and discuss results of international studies on impact pathways conducted in different thematic areas (e.g. sustainable urban and rural development as well as socio-technical and social innovations for sustainable regional development).
Martina Schäfer and Emilia Nagy will also present their multi-method impact workshop concept, which they developed with Josefa Kny (formerly ZTG) during the first phase of the tdAcademy. The poster “Fostering reflective impact orientation in transdisciplinary research - a multi-method workshop format” presents the main steps of the workshop format, the key competencies that are fostered by applying and testing the format. The poster will be presented in the session “How to integrate inclusion in higher education? An exhibition of innovative teaching and learning formats in different regions” presented by Sabine Hoffmann (EAWAG - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and Bianca Vienni-Baptista (ETH Zürich).
Scientific impacts
Relatively much research has been done on the social and societal impact of transdisciplinary research , but what impact does transdisciplinarity (TD) have on science? The research associates of the tdAcademy topic line 1 “Scientific effects” - Oskar Marg and Lena Theiler - address this topic, which has been little researched to date, in their presentation “Effects of transdisciplinary research on scientific knowledge and reflexivity”. They present the results of their empirical research conducted in the first phase of the tdAcademy. Based on 22 qualitative interviews with transdisciplinary researchers from different disciplines, they identify three main effects: 1) TD changes the understanding of scientific problems, 2) TD changes the quality of scientific knowledge, 3) TD promotes a reflexive turn in science.
Together with the members of the tdAcademy fellow group “Transdisciplinary research and scientific impact” (Jana Semrau, Afred Rütten (both Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), Richard Beecroft (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), Guido Caniglia (Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolutionary and Cognitive Research) and Evelyne de Leeuw (Université de Montréal)), they also organize the session “What do we mean by ‘scientific impact’ of transdisciplinary research?“. The aim of this session is to further elaborate their conceptual framework of scientific impact with the international community in the field of transdisciplinary research, to learn from each other and to broaden our perspective on the scientific impact of TD.
In view of the emerging "polycrisis", humanity is facing unprecedented socio-ecological challenges on a planetary scale that require a transformation of unsustainable societies. But who gets to define what a "good transformation" is? Our Fellow Group "What is a 'good' transformation and who gets to define it?" will organize a workshop on "Agency and power in transdisciplinary research: applying insights from critical social science to strengthen reflexivity" together with our colleague Alexandra Lux. The exploration of specific transdisciplinary research tools through the workshop format aims to promote reflexivity and show how power and agency can be better considered in transdisciplinary research practice. The workshop is aimed at researchers and all types of practitioners working in or interested in doing so.
Synthesis interface 1 “societal and scientific impact”
Aiming for both societal and scientific impact in a research process is challenging. The implications of this challenge have been addressed by research in the interface 1 “societal and scientific impact” since the beginning of the second funding phase of the tdAcademy. Lena Theiler, Emilia Nagy, Oskar Marg and Martina Schäfer have identified both synergies and trade-offs. In the session “Synergies and trade-offs between scientific and societal effects they would like to stimulate an exchange with researchers, discuss their results and subsequently discuss strategies for strengthening synergies and mitigating trade-offs.
Integration experts
Parallel to the spread of trans- and interdisciplinary approaches, a group of experts has emerged who specialize in integration measures. They are referred to as “integration experts” and have a fundamental commonality in the various forms of their expertise and practice: they guide cognitive, social and emotional integration between researchers and between academics and practitioners in inter- and transdisciplinary projects. In the workshop “A typology of integration experts to clarify functions and positions”, our colleague Chantal Krumm (ISOE) together with Tatiana Merino-Benítez (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México), Katja Brundiers (University of Freiburg), Hanna Salomon, Donata Dettwiler and Sabine Hoffmann (all three EAWAG - Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) will present a typology of “integration experts” and put it up for discussion.