by Philip Bernert, Daniel Lang, Henrik von Wehrden

Today, transdisciplinary research is an established research mode in sustainability sci-ence that integrates knowledge from diverse domains to address problems of societal relevance and to generate knowledge that contributes to sustainability transformations. Over the last decade, several approaches have been developed in this context that build on transdisciplinarity and adopt a transformative research understanding: Real-world labs, urban living labs, and other kinds of sustainability-oriented labs represent formats that aim for the establishment of long-term transdisciplinary partnerships between sci-entific and societal actors. In these settings, a central goal is, to contribute to actual sus-tainability transformations through real-world experimentation and enable learning about these needed processes of transformation. Consequentially, these labs are not primarily designed with the focus to enable the generation of scientific results. The activi-ties of these labs typically follow a strongly context-oriented logic. While this orientation can be easily criticized as unscientific, we argue that here lies a crucial learning oppor-tunity to explore new formats of research needed for a scientific system that is asked to address societal problems of global proportions.

In this context, we ask the question ‘how can real-world labs contribute to advancing a transdisciplinary and transformative science?’. By addressing this question, we aim to contribute to a deeper understanding of how these new scientific approaches can fur-ther enable science to address current and future sustainability challenges.

In this paper, which is based on a cumulative dissertation, we answer the question by drawing from several years of research in real-world lab settings. We present four out-puts of this work that aim to advance transformative science through educational, re-search-practical, and conceptual contributions:

1. In a real-world lab-based teaching project, we have developed a set a of design principles to support the development and practice of sustainability-oriented transformative teaching formats.

2. In an international research-consortium of seven urban living labs, we have de-veloped a case reporting approach to foster cross-case knowledge learning and knowledge transfer.

3. By exploring a seven-year collaborative real-world lab process, we suggest a new understanding of impacts of these processes. Here, we offer a perspective com-plementary to a cause-and-effect logic and instead conceptualize impacts as emergent from diverse design elements of real-world lab processes.

4. In a real-world experiment with a local coffee shop and roastery, we showcase how analogy-based knowledge transfer and conceptual replication of an experi-ment foster the generation of societally relevant and methodologically robust transdisciplinary research outcomes.

We then synthesize these results to provide a new perspective on real-world labs com-plementing the existing understanding of these labs as settings for societal outputs and evidence on solutions. Through their transformative orientation and from a traditional science perspective, real-world labs can be understood to operate in a ‘fringe zone’ of science and society. With the distinct goal to enable societal change, many of the activi-ties of and within these labs do not follow established scientific methodologies and theories. However, as we argue, the research and activities in and of real-world laborato-ries provide a setting in which not only sustainability solutions can be developed, im-plemented, and analyzed: Besides the opportunity to provide new understandings and evidence about these solution strategies, real-world labs can be understood as settings for methodological, conceptual and research-practical innovations. Located at the sci-ence-society interface, real-world labs allow researchers to explore what science can be and thus advance transformative research.

by Jonas Rehn-Groenendijk, Rebecca Niebler, Helena Müller, Martin Führ, Silke Kleihauer

Transformative research projects that aim at changing complex (sub-)systems face the challenge of addressing critical societal problems that cannot be solved by themselves. Rather, the active engagement by and shared problem framing by relevant stakeholders is key in order to come up with effective and feasible solutions which eventually might have an impact on the system at hand. Furthermore, these solutions need to be implemented by the stakeholders themselves to become effective in the long run.

This paper outlines the application of a transdisciplinary approach for transformative research projects – the Transment Approach, developed at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. It does so by firstly, illustrating the proceedings, evaluation and lessons learned of a five-year transformative research projects aiming for more sustainable leather chemistry in the global supply chains. Incorporating several global actors from the leather supply chains, such as chemical companies, tanneries, brands and others the project faced various obstacles and eventually resulted in a number of outputs whose systemic effect can only be measured by time. Applying the framework from Luederitz et al. we found it to be particularly useful for the clusters “processes” and “outputs”. In the case of this transdisciplinary project, we found further indicators especially in the cluster “input” as both the characteristics of actors from industry as well as the actual interdisciplinary scientific team need to be considered separately.

Secondly, these insights were used to inform the conceptualisation of a newly initiated transdisciplinary project dealing with traceability of chemicals along the global textile supply chains. The project addresses challenges for businesses created by the Green Deal transition towards a climate-neutral, resource-preserving and non-toxic Circular Economy (CE). Traceability of chemicals in materials is a key enabler for the CE. In this project a European consortium of actors from the textile industry, government agencies and academia will deal with the challenges regarding the implementation of chemical traceability along global supply chains from various perspectives.

Both projects have in common, that they aim at changing complex (sub-)systems by addressing specific context factors through co-creational process with relevant stakeholders. In both cases normative orientation and a sufficient societal pressure could be used to gain momentum and stakeholders commitment. While both project apply methods such as scenario technique and theory of change, lessons learned from the former project included among other aspects the specific selection of relevant stakeholders, the conceptual design of the project plan and several measures to increase ownership and commitment by the stakeholders involved. At the same time the fundamental role of the regulatory context in which a project is set becomes obvious by the latter being set during the dynamic developments on European levels (e.g. Geen Deal, Ecodesign Requirements Regulation).

With this paper, we aim at sharing insights from a formative evaluation process to inform new transformative processes and to test the usability of the Transment Approach as a methodology for transdisciplinary projects that is iteratively being adjusted and extended.

by Florian Knutzen, Katharina Bülow, Bettina Steuri, Markus Groth, Diana Rechid

Climate change presents severe challenges to the German forestry sector, impacting ecosystems, biodiversity, and overall forest vitality. Efforts are underway to elevate public awareness and collaboration to effectively respond to climate change impacts. Our research adopts a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, integrating transdisciplinary processes and co-creation, to understand stakeholder needs and develop climate service products. Focusing on climate extremes such as drought, heat, strong wind/storm, and heavy rain, we investigate diverse perceptions among authorities, scientists, and forest users. Drawing insights from the ClimXtreme project (cf. Conference talks), we engaged in a collaborative case study with stakeholders from the city forest Karlsruhe. The transdisciplinary research aims to address specific climate information needs, inform society about climate change impacts and adaptation strategies, and facilitate communication with various forest users.

The resulting first climate service product – an easy understandable and scientifically sound informative flyer of eight pages - covers a range of topics from climate scenarios to specialized climate indices for forestry as well as practical adaptation measures initiated by the city forestry office of Karlsruhe. To support the usability and enhance the societal and scientific impacts based on our case-study, a multi-level approach has been chosen. Thus, in addition to the published flyer, all data and methods used are comprehensively explained and additional indices, analyses, methods, data, and literature will be made freely accessible online.

The outcome of our efforts emphasizes the important role of co-creation to enhance inter- and transdisciplinary capacities for climate change adaptation in a city forest. By fostering dialogues with key stakeholders and co-creating practice-specific climate information, particularly tailored for a city forestry office in southwestern Germany, our efforts inform society about climate change impacts and adaptation strategies and facilitate communication with diverse forest users (e.g. local forest visitors or hunters). This integrated approach ensures a meaningful contribution to climate resilience in the German forestry sector and beyond.

by Ina Opitz, Nadin Gaasch, Melanie Kryst

Transdisciplinary research is linked to the goal of developing knowledge for social transformation. Its process of co-design, co-production and re-integration (Jahn et al. 2012) is widely accepted in transdisciplinary research. Even if there are various deviations in the exact designation and also the number of process phases (Lawrence et al. 2022). It is generally assumed that the impetus and also the setting of the topic for transdisciplinary research comes from the sciences, which raise or have already raised funds for it.

But do the sciences actually set the right topics to initiate social transformation? Does the pre-analysis of system, target and transformation knowledge by the sciences meet the actual social needs for research? In two pilot processes, the TD-Lab - Laboratory for Transdisciplinary Research of the Berlin University Alliance - has researched what a collaborative phase of topic identification before the start of a transdisciplinary project might look like. We call this phase co-exploration.

We define co-exploration as a method-guided joint search for relevant research topics and joint agenda-setting by science and society before the actual project development and application process. We distinguish between two types of co-exploration: research area-related co-exploration (1) and thematic field-related co-exploration (2).

With the poster we present two pilot processes: Youth participation process in finding the Next Grand Challenge (1) and The Thematic Workshops on Urban Health (2). We give insights in specific challenges of co-exploration that distinguish it from other initial phases of transdisciplinary processes described in the literature (Pearce and Ejderyan 2020; Horca-Milcu et al. 2022): great uncertainty due to a high degree of process and open-endedness with a simultaneous high level of commitment on the part of the management levels. We describe approaches to dealing with these challenges and discuss why and for whom co-exploration might be relevant.

• Horcea-Milcu, Andra-Ioana/ Leventon, Julia/ Lang, Daniel J. (2022): Making Transdisciplinary happen: Phase 0, or before the beginning. In: Environmental Science and Policy 136, 187 -197.

• Jahn, T., Bergmann, M., & Keil, F. (2012). Transdisciplinarity: Between mainstreaming and marginalization. In: Ecological Economics 79, 1-10.

• Lawrence, M. G., Williams, S., Nanz, P., Renn, O. (2022): Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research. In: One Earth, 5 (1), 44 - 61.

• Pearce, B.J. and Ejderyan, O. (2020): Joint problem framing as a reflexive practice: honing a transdisciplinary skill. In: Sustainability science, 15, 683 – 698.

by Konstanty Ramotowski

The integration of arts, social sciences, and humanities (ASSH) into energy modeling has gained significant traction over the past years, with researchers increasingly recognizing their potential to enhance reality and transparency in energy models. Efforts of energy research and inter- and transdisciplinary research communities have started to produce results seen in the institutional changes towards transdisciplinary energy research as in Switzerland. To assess the possible contribution of ASSH into energy modeling and potential benefits of it, in this poster I aim to answer the questions what is current representation of social aspects in the energy models, what social aspects are not yet represented sufficiently in models, and what implications for imaginable energy futures it brings? My research is framed in the project Co-evolution and coordinated simulation of Swiss Energy System and Swiss Society (CoSi, funded by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, period 2023-2033), which aims to deliver energy models integrating social sciences and humanities within techno-economic research, to address the complexities of the energy transition.

Within Cosi, I conduct a systematic literature review to identify social aspects of the energy transition that are contributed by AHSS. After identifying sets of keywords, I created query using Boolean and proximity operators and gathered data from Web of Science and Scopus. The selected 60 records represent the most relevant articles which were subjected to a qualitative content analysis.

Social aspects, referred here as social factors of the energy transition, typically encompass quantifiable parameters integrated into models at various stages of the modeling process or narratives used in scenario preparation. These parameters and narratives are predominantly grounded in economics, with occasional inputs from behavioral and political sciences. This reliance emphasizes a positivist view of human behavior and optimization for least-cost solutions, and shapes many energy models' assumptions and outcomes.

In my research, I enquire on an alternative approach to this narrow understanding of social factors, i.e., a cultural perspective on energy transition. The cultural perspective focuses on the human dimension of the energy transition. It delves into the symbolic meanings, but also cognition and motives of societal actors. It allows, among others, insight into socio-cultural context and power structures. Moreover, the cultural perspective encourages a more reflexive and critical approach, and examining differences between dominant and alternative energy narratives and imaginaries.

In this poster, I will present the findings of the literature review and provide a rich picture of the social aspects that are identified as main contributions from AHSS in energy modelling. I will elaborate on a classification that shows the relevance of the cultural approach to better understand how to integrate AHSS contributions into energy research. The application of the cultural perspective suggests a broader and more critically oriented role for ASSH in future energy modeling. This broader perspective enables the exploration of diverse energy narratives and imaginaries, shedding light on complex socio-cultural aspects and power structures influencing energy transition.

by Melanie Kryst, Nadin Gaasch

In the dynamic landscape of contemporary research, fostering transdisciplinary collaboration and cultivating a synergistic environment are imperative for advancing knowledge. This poster presents the methods of transdisciplinary thematic workshops as a series of events designed to co-explore topics within a research field as well as in an integrated research environment. The workshops were carried out by the Berlin University Alliance’s TD Lab – Laboratory for transdisciplinary research with the aim to strengthen transdisciplinary research within the core research areas of the newly established alliance.

Transdisciplinary thematic workshops are dynamic forums that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries, fostering an inclusive and collaborative ethos. They function as incubators for ideas, providing a platform where researchers from various domains can converge to explore shared interests, methodologies, and potential avenues for collaborative projects. These workshops serve as catalysts for innovation, bringing together diverse expertise and perspectives to address complex challenges. This presentation will shed light on the key attributes and methodologies employed in organizing and executing successful transdisciplinary thematic workshops.

During the thematic workshops, a variety of interactive formats and tools are employed, such as a thematic card game, plenum discussions, breakout sessions, and collaborative exercises. These formats are strategically designed to stimulate engagement, foster dialogue, and encourage the cross-pollination of ideas. Participants are encouraged to share their expertise, insights, and challenges, fostering a culture of open communication and mutual learning.

One distinctive feature of thematic workshops is their iterative nature. Rather than standalone events, they are organized as a series, allowing participants to build upon previous discussions and delve deeper into specific aspects of the overarching theme. This iterative approach not only strengthens the collaborative bonds formed during the workshops but also facilitates the development of sustained, long-term collaborations that transcend the confines of individual events. In between-workshop communication channels are established to facilitate networking among participants and to encourage the exchange of preliminary ideas, setting the stage for a vibrant and productive workshop.

The impact of thematic workshops extends beyond the immediate research community, influencing policy, practice, and future research directions. This poster will showcase case two series of thematic workshops by the TD-Lab of the Berlin University Alliance that have initiated transdisciplinary research collaborations, both as an example and as a concept to build on.

by Jana Semrau, Alfred Rütten

Since the Ottawa Charter (World Health Organization, 1986) a core argument for health promotion action is the need for collaborative efforts in order to change existing social structures which are harmful for population health (Potvin & Jourdan, 2022). Despite the importance of structural change as key health promotion strategy, however, there is little consensus about what structural change is. Moreover, there is a lack of theory-driven approaches on how to implement it. To our understanding, such approaches should be able to explain why to do what and when in order to achieve structural changes. Therefore, this presentation introduces a cooperative planning approach as an innovative practice of community action that functions as a driving force for changes in both everyday life practice (e.g. creating healthy environments) and political practice (e.g. developing healthy public policies) (Rütten et al. 2023). The aim is to show how a “cooperative planning”-approach works as a mechanism of structural change.

We apply a theory-based conceptual model that covers fundamental dimensions of health promotion action and position cooperative planning as a driving force within the model. Data from a case study in the field of community-based health promotion with a focus on people in difficult life situations are used to explain how health-promoting structural change can be achieved through this collaborative intervention approach.

Cooperative planning takes into account the intervention context and the participation of relevant stakeholders as “inputs”. The “process” itself is participatory, collaborative and moderated towards concrete actions. The "outputs" of cooperative planning are various measures implemented to improve both everyday life practice (e.g. through infrastructure development) and political practice (e.g. healthy public policies). We distinguish the effects of cooperative planning on individuals and populations (e.g. enabling of participating stakeholders) as "outcomes" from the structural effects that we call "impact". The latter refers to changes in rules and resources that underlie social practice. For example, those “structural changes” are decipherable from the changed patterns of behavior and social interaction that different stakeholders employ as new or modified routines in their everyday life practice.

The cooperative planning approach has been proven an effective mechanism of structural change in certain case studies. Future research and application should further test and develop this approach on a broader basis and in new application areas.

References

• World Health Organization (1986). Ottawa charter of health promotion. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/teams/health-promotion/enhanced-wellbeing/first-global-conference

• Potvin, L., & Jourdan, D. (Eds.). (2022). Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research, Vol. 1: Mapping Health Promotion Research (1st ed. 2022). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97212-7

• Rütten, A., Semrau, J. & Wolff, A. R. (2023). Entwicklung gesundheitsförderlicher Strukturen durch kooperative Planung. Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Onlinepublikation. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11553-023-01045-4

by Lisa M. Andrews, Stefania Munaretto, Heleen L.P. Mees, Peter P.J. Driessen

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) is one method where scientific and societal actors, each with various backgrounds, collaborate to address complex problems through knowledge co-creation. Despite its widespread use, TDR still lacks a common definition and methodology which makes it challenging to define clear mechanisms for knowledge co-creation that facilitate impact. Many authors across complementary bodies of literature provide lists of principles, best practices and approaches for TDR, but in practice these are rarely applied consistently. In this conceptual paper, we fill this gap and increase methodological coherence for sustainability TDR by consolidating these bodies of literature into a list of suggested activities for scientists and practitioners across contexts to apply to enhance the impact of their work. We consolidate primary and secondary literature from the fields of TDR, sustainability, complexity, research impact, stakeholder engagement, project management, boundary work and knowledge systems with our own practical experience in sustainability TDR projects. This synthesis leads to our conceptual and analytical framework of twelve boundary work activities that enhance credible, salient and legitimate (CSL) knowledge. Our assumption is that if boundary work activities are successfully implemented across the phases of a TDR project and enhance CSL knowledge, then there will be cascading effects that support a higher likelihood of knowledge use and outcomes that lead to impactful sustainability transformations.

This is a novel conceptualisation as, to the best of our knowledge, no other scholars have outlined potential relationships between this list of boundary work activities and how they enhance CSL as a proxy for leading to impact in TDR projects. This list can be used and further operationalised by practitioners and researchers in TDR projects. By contributing to further conceptualising boundary work activities, our research supports sustainability related TDR projects across contexts, but also projects, programmes, organisations, or companies where knowledge co-creation across boundaries and disciplines is required to support CSL knowledge co-creation. Given the urgency of the complex sustainability problems of our time, we call for research to rethink how we design, implement, and evaluate TDR projects globally to ensure more effective knowledge use and impact. Future research should further unpack and operationalise our list of boundary work activities and how they enhance CSL knowledge to deliver impact.

• Belcher, B., Davel, R., & Claus, R. (2020). A refined method for theory-based evaluation of the societal impacts of research. MethodsX, 7, 100788. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2020.100788

• Lang, D. J., Wiek, A., Bergmann, M., Stauffacher, M., Martens, P., Moll, P., . . . Thomas, C. J. (2012). Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges. Sustainability Science, 7(1), 25-43. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-011-0149-x

• Walter, A. I., Helgenberger, S., Wiek, A., & Scholz, R. W. (2007). Measuring societal effects of transdisciplinary research projects: design and application of an evaluation method. Evaluation and program planning, 30(4), 325-338. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2007.08.002

by Marieke Vermue, Félice van Nunspeet, Roel Willems, Anne Roeters, Naomi Ellemers

How can we bridge the gap between social science and policy? Public policy design and implementation benefits greatly from knowledge about citizens’ attitudes, living conditions and behaviour. The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) is a governmental research institute that has a mission to contribute to policy with social and societal knowledge, by conducting and collecting research. Collaboration with academic researchers from universities and with policy makers is vital for this mission, but no easy task. In the current project, researchers from academic and governmental institutes were interviewed to collect experiences from participants’ previous collaborative projects and extract important lessons for the future. Why do researchers set up transdisciplinary collaborations, what are important barriers to overcome and which factors lead to successful collaborations?

From a combination of interviews and scientific literature, we have comprised a number of key insights to take into account when bridging the gap between social science and policy. Namely, 1) the importance of knowledge of the policy domain, 2) taking differences between institutes into account, 3) appreciating different perspectives, 4) looking for a shared goal and 5) creating commitment in all parties. Difficulties arise when differences in goals and priorities between organisations are overlooked, and commitment and appreciation for the collaborative effort are lacking. These important lessons are considered in further shaping the collaboration between the SCP and social psychology at Utrecht University, which is the focus of my postdoc project. In this poster presentation, I give examples of how academic and policy research can strengthen each other in the shared goal of contributing to better social policy and a resilient society.

This project is funded by the gravitation project Sustainable Cooperation (SCOOP), and the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP).

by Femke Bekius, Bas Hofstra, Eliana Vassena, Tamara van Woezik

Interdisciplinary science and education are essential to tackle complex societal and academic problems. With increasing complex problems such as globalization, climate change and digitalization, the call for interdisciplinary approaches is pressing. Moreover, interdisciplinary collaboration is key to inspiring new research approaches and education. However, many research and education structures in Dutch academia are organized in a monodisciplinary manner. The monodisciplinary origins are explained by disciplinary departments often being the administrative units within universities on which financing structures are based.

The monodisciplinary structures could hamper interdisciplinary ambitions and ultimately jeopardize impact. First insights into potential barriers show that these pertain to be practical, epistemological, and are constituted by power structures. In a practical sense it might be difficult to find academics from a different discipline. Once you work together it is difficult to continue collaborations due to varying schedules, time-allocation for research and teaching, or physical distance. Interdisciplinary projects require explanation of its relevance to disciplinary colleagues and supervisors to make sure you receive support, time, or funds. This might be complicated due to differences in epistemologies that are present in different disciplines. Due to varying epistemologies, fields may use and value certain topics, methods or approaches differently (Oudenampsen, 2024). This can lead to conflicting or diverging beliefs about the quality of research or scientific rigor. Ultimately, this can result in or facilitate differences in power structures and power imbalances (Looman et al., 2022). Potential enablers on an individual level can be found in different coping strategies (Woiwode and Froese, 2021). We expect enablers to exist also at team, faculty, university and national level. An example are the Radboud Young Academy Cross-Faculty Catapult Grants.

In this project, we aim to explore the enablers and barriers of interdisciplinary collaboration in a monodisciplinary setting. We take a system perspective and focus particularly on cross-faculty interdisciplinary collaborations. Moreover, we aim to find possible angles to approach this issue given the monodisciplinary environment. By researching these aims we envision empowering researchers both at individual and group level to find pathways to successful interdisciplinary collaborations. Additionally, we plan to advise university and faculty boards on how to support interdisciplinary collaborations in a monodisciplinary environment.

We start with developing a mapping of enablers and barriers of interdisciplinary collaboration based on a purposeful selection of literature in which we consider individual, team, and structural factors. In short interviews with academics from different faculties, who are currently working in networks or on projects that have an interdisciplinary nature but take place in a monodisciplinary environment, we expand, refine, and verify the mapping. This will enable us to consider structural factors at the between-faculty level.

The mapping is a starting point for suggestions and interventions. The poster is an extension of the study itself. We will present an update of the theoretical framework and present the findings from interviews. Conference participants are invited to contribute to this by adding novel enablers, novel barriers, ways to address the barriers and ways to implement the enablers.

by Dorien Baeten, Sarah Doumen, Jolien Notermans, An Hardy

The new Master of Materiomics (started in the academic year 2022-2023) aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to confront some of the most complex and urgent societal challenges, including climate change, energy transition, global pandemics, …. Rooted in the nexus of physics and chemistry, this interdisciplinary programme fosters the creation of innovative and sustainable materials through integration of experimental and theoretical approaches. At the heart of the master’s lies a commitment to interdisciplinary learning, realized through an interdisciplinary learning line, building on the principles of boundary-crossing theory (identification, coordination, reflection, and transformation). This theoretical framework guides the programme’s design, implementation, and assessment.

This contribution reports on the first results of a larger design-based research aimed at monitoring and refining the implementation of interdisciplinary education, and more particularly the interdisciplinary learning line, within the Materiomics’ programme. The key research questions addressed in this study are: a) How do teachers experience (the implementation of) interdisciplinarity in the programme? What can be improved?, b) How do the courses position themselves regarding the four learning mechanisms of boundary-crossing theory?, and c) Which factors and teaching methods can hinder or promote the implementation of the interdisciplinary learning line? To address these questions, the study employed a qualitative approach, combining focus group discussions with teachers and input from students enrolled in the Materiomics master's programme. Throughout these interviews, several themes emerged, offering valuable insights into the complexities and opportunities inherent in interdisciplinary education.

This study confirmed that the courses within the Materiomics’ master's are positioned along the interdisciplinary learning line as conceptualized during the programmes’ design phase. While most courses focus on identification and coordination, there are opportunities to broaden the scope toward reflection and transformation already in the first master’s year. In the second master’s year, the curriculum contains elective courses aiming at all of the four interdisciplinary learning phases. It depends on the student's own programme to what extent they progress on the interdisciplinary learning line, although enough opportunities are provided for the students to grow towards reflection and transformation. The master thesis, in particular, is an important course in this aspect, as here, the students need to integrate their acquired knowledge from different disciplines to solve a particular material problem.

Teachers and students shared challenges and successes in teaching and learning in this interdisciplinary master’s programme. Challenges stemmed primarily from the diverse disciplinary backgrounds of teachers and students, as well as difficulties in balancing the breadth of knowledge and depth of specialization. Teaching methods such as team teaching, expert lectures, and interdisciplinary projects are identified by teachers and students as effective means of fostering interdisciplinary competencies and enhancing the overall learning experience.

The findings of this study contribute to further understanding of a) the teachers’ and students’ views on issues to be tackled when implementing a new interdisciplinary curriculum, and b) promoting factors and good practices in this regard, which may also generalize, irrespective of the study programme at hand.

by Matthias Malottke, Natalie Taupe, Ursula Knaack, Martina Ortbauer

The importance of interdisciplinary education at universities is increasingly recognized. In particular environmental assessments of products, processes or systems are an excellent example for a topic that benefits greatly from interdisciplinary knowledge and approaches. By integrating knowledge and methods from various disciplines, environmental assessments can be made more effective to develop comprehensive and sustainable solutions to environmental problems.

This study presents a roadmap for implementing a didactic guide for teaching environmental assessments with an emphasis on interdisciplinarity. It is developed in the context of a project, funded by the city of Vienna, to foster integration of environmental assessment methods in STEM programs at the UAS Technikum Vienna. The roadmap offers structured instructions for teachers of different study programs and disciplinary backgrounds to successfully integrate environmental assessment methods into their curricula. By providing a systematic approach to implementation, the roadmap supports teachers to plan, implement and evaluate the teaching process. This not only promotes efficient use of resources, but also enables more flexible adaptation to the individual needs and requirements of individual courses.

The roadmap is based on a thorough needs analysis of lecturers at the UAS Technikum Vienna. In addition, experts from different disciplines are involved to include a broader range of perspectives and pilot tests are conducted to test and validate the practical applicability and effectiveness of the roadmap in real-world teaching environments.

by Jolien Notermans, Annick Hayen, Fréderique Vansweevelt, Rani Valkeneers, Sarah Dillis, Leontien Briels

Context

Hasselt University wants to shape its students into critical citizens with a sustainable mindset who are prepared to take on complex societal challenges. An emphasis on inter- and transdisciplinary education is crucial for preparing students to navigate the interconnected nature of these societal challenges. We envision our students to be T-shaped professionals, who possess in-depth disciplinary expertise on the one hand and transversal competencies on the other hand. T-shaped professionals are able to look across different perspectives and disciplines to find new solutions (Bierema, 2019).

Approach and methodology

In order to prepare our students for the wicked problems of society and to become T-shaped professionals, we developed an university-wide competencies framework focussed on sustainability. The goal is that every student acquires these sustainability competencies, so this sustainability competencies framework must be implemented in all curricula at our university by 2029. This sustainability competencies framework is inspired by literature such as Ploum et al. (2018) and Wiek et al. (2015), as well as the GreenComp Framework (Bianchi et al., 2022). The framework consists of 4 interrelated competencies, namely:

• Inclusive collaboration

• Systems thinking

• Ethical and sustainable reflection

• Sustainable action

This framework has been established by a reciprocal exchange of perspectives and expectations with the study programmes, as well as the input of an expertise panel.

Inter- and transdisciplinary education is essential if we want our students to acquire these sustainability competencies. We aim to broaden students' perspectives so that they can take on their societal role and reflect on the impact of their role and actions.

Imlementation

To achieve this, we know that the role of teachers is crucial. Therefore, we aim to professionalize our teachers on the themes of sustainability and inter- and transdisciplinary education. During the poster presentation, we will give an overview of our implementation process as well as the various initiatives we undertake for teachers. For the sustainability competencies framework, we provide an online toolbox with content related to education for sustainable development and specific tools for the implementation of the competencies framework in curricula and courses. Moreover, thematic professionalisation sessions are offered. For the theme of inter- and transdisciplinary education, we developed a framework with a clarification of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary education as well as a roadmap for teachers in order to implement this into their educational practice.

Follow-up

The integration of the sustainability competencies framework is monitored yearly by meetings with every program, followed by feedforward. These meetings can also be used to discuss the implementation of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary education in each programs, as well as specific needs programs and teachers may have concerning this theme.

In addition, we are in search of a way of monitoring the student side, more specifically:

• - How can we assess if the students have acquired these competencies?

• - Which criteria are relevant for this assessment?

• - Which tools can we use for this assessment?

• - How can we involve the workings field and the broader society in the assessment of our students?

These questions will guide the discussion during our poster presentation.

by Peter Hochenauer

Many of today's grand challenges, such as climate change, social and gender inequalities, disruptive technologies, urbanization and migration, pose wicked problems: pressing societal issues characterized by their inherent complexity, uncertainty and political dimension. Wicked problems are ill-structured, involve diverse interest groups, cut across various disciplines and sectors as well as public and private spheres. They can jeopardize transdisciplinary research projects in the initial phase of joint problem framing. Stakeholders’ (including researchers’) divergent perceptions, values and worldviews may not only significantly constrain the space of possible outcomes, but also thwart any progress due to disagreements on a problem definition. In the worst case, political dynamics intensify or the project comes to a halt. Faced with this challenge: How can we facilitate joint problem framing to expand or transform the space of possible outcomes?

A common practice is to employ dialog-based workshops that foster mutual understanding and learning. Dialog-based approaches rely mainly on rational discourse and methods to articulate and elaborate different stakeholder perspectives. However, rational discourse can be severely limited when values and worldviews of stakeholders strongly diverge. In addition, the potential of non-rational ways of knowing may not be realized and their proponents marginalized.

To address these shortcomings, we draw on insights from recent developments in cognitive science and propose to understand joint problem framing from a radical enactive view of cognition. We thus challenge the priority of rationality by shifting attention to basic, i.e., non-linguistic/non-conceptual forms of cognition. In this way, we include non-rational factors like bodily feelings, emotions and intuitions as well as experiential, presentational and practical knowledge.

According to a radical enactive view of cognition, knowledge is not the result of information about the world that is processed inside people’s brains. Rather, knowledge emerges through people’s dynamic bodily interactions with their material and social environment. Technically speaking, an agent and its environment co-emerge and co-develop through interaction as a complex dynamical system. An agent enacts its own lifeworld and is simultaneously shaped by it in a circular process.

Adopting this view of cognition has immediate consequences for facilitating joint problem framing: There are no ‘mental models’ inside the brains of the stakeholders that ‘represent’ their perspectives on ‘the’ wicked problem in the outside world. Rather, there are as many wicked problems as there are different stakeholders; they exist only together as dynamical systems. Thus, methods for externalizing and updating mental models to better correspond to reality do not make sense anymore. Instead, the goal of joint problem framing becomes finding ways to coordinate new interaction patterns between stakeholders in fruitful ways. Facilitating this process means to employ methods that support stakeholders in jointly exploring and learning new ways of interacting and thereby transforming and coordinating their lifeworlds.

Beyond a theoretical elaboration on joint problem framing from a radical enactive view of cognition, we will derive general design principles that can be applied and tested by workshop facilitators.

by Sigrid Brydolf, Kateryna Pereverza

While literature exists on challenges facing transdisciplinary research practices (Lang et al., 2012; Scholz & Steiner, 2015), group dynamics is rarely mentioned as a significant factor for the outcome and success of transdisciplinary processes. Group dynamics is a complex social phenomenon described as the interpersonal relationships that emerge in small groups of people engaging in a common activity (Merlin et al., 2020). Research shows that group dynamics has a clear impact on level of creativity and overall group performance in collaborative settings (Chung & Meenely, 2012; Dörnyei & Malderez, 1997). Thus, this study aims to explore the interrelation between group dynamics and quality of outcome in transdisciplinary processes, as well as how group dynamics can be influenced to improve problem-solving for sustainability.

Through ethnographic field research, this study explored the working processes and outcomes of five student groups applying the so-called modular participatory backcasting (mPB) framework (Pereverza et al., 2019) to an urban sustainability challenge within a transdisciplinary-oriented university course at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. By learning from the ongoing work of Stockholm municipality, students were to formulate a vision, creative solutions and a pathway for achieving a sustainable city center by 2050. Qualitative data about the students’ group dynamics, performance, and creativity was collected through observations, interviews, surveys, and workshops. For the evaluation of group dynamics, a theoretical framework was constructed, involving factors such as group composition, engagement, leadership, and communication, which were observed using qualitative indicators. The theoretical framework was based on literature on group dynamics related to performance and creativity. Evaluation of group performance and creativity was done through the course teacher's judgment based on grading criteria.

The results indicate that group dynamics are in fact related to the creativity and performance of transdisciplinary student groups. For example, groups displaying lower engagement, unsupportive communication and negative-dominant behavior were associated with poorer task outcomes, while groups applying shared leadership, intermember positive reinforcement and high engagement performed higher. Further, the study concludes that while it is hard for individual group members to fundamentally change the group dynamics of a group, increased awareness about the significance of group dynamics could help groups foster group dynamics that are favorable to problem-solving.

Naturally, the fact that the study takes place in an educational setting limits the transferability to real-life transdisciplinary research processes. However, the particular focus on group dynamics and the theoretical framework proposed in this study can be of interest for deepening the insights into what factors contribute to successful transdisciplinary collaborations.

• Chung & Meenely (2012), ‘Profiling Group Dynamics Within Business and Design Student Teams: Relationships Among Personality Traits, Problem-Solving Styles, and Creative Performance’, Journal of Interior Design, 37(3), pp. 23–45

• Dörnyei & Malderez (1997), ‘Group dynamics and foreign language teaching’, System, 25(1), pp. 65-81

• Lang et al. (2012), ‘Transdisciplinary research in sustainability science: practice, principles, and challenges’, Sustainability Science, 7, pp. 25-43

• Merlin et al. (2020), 'Elements of group dynamics that influence learning in small groups in undergraduate students: A scoping review', Nurse Education Today, 87, pp.104362

• Pereverza et al. (2019), 'Modular participatory backcasting: A unifying framework for strategic planning in the heating sector', Energy Policy, 124, pp.123–134

• Scholz & Steiner (2015), ‘The real type and ideal type of transdisciplinary processes: part II—what constraints and obstacles do we meet in practice?’, Sustainability Science, 10, pp. 653–671

by Sebastian Niklas Koppius

Sustainability efforts, such as eco-friendly production and the efficient energy management, are becoming increasingly important for companies. To address these efforts, different occupational disciplines, such as technical and management disciplines, need to combine their knowledge and expertise. One solution to foster these interdisciplinary competencies early on is to establish these competencies during vocational education and training (VET).

In Germany, a dual system of VET offers students the possibility of an apprenticeship. During this apprenticeship, students acquire job relevant competencies based on occupation specific curricula. However, these curricula currently lack the promotion of interdisciplinary competencies (Sloane et al. 2018, 13). While business managers and technicians must work together daily in most companies, German schools within the dual system of vocational education and training currently do not prepare their students for this task so far.

Applying the model of interdisciplinary competencies by Claus & Wiese (2021), this study examines the interdisciplinary collaboration of business and technical teachers in a setting where they jointly work on implementing lessons for both - business and technical students. The authors define the interdisciplinary competencies in four dimensions: “initiative of exchange”, “target group-specific communication”, “integration of knowledge” as well as the “reflection on one's own discipline”. Their model integrates previous interdisciplinary competencies models (Bromme 2000; Steinheider et al. 2009; Lattuca et al. 2012). However, all these approaches have all been tested in the context of higher education or in interdisciplinary company teams, but not in the VET context.

Following a design-based research approach, the teachers' cooperation was documented and analysed with a research portfolio. Its entries documented each meeting and reflected to the teachers the way they worked together. While, lesson planning is influenced by a variety of factors and decisions (Sloane 2021), these steps must now be organised jointly for both groups of students. This involves identifying overlaps in curricula and school-related agreements. Three business and two technical teachers are involved in the process over a period of one year.

Preliminary results show that the "initiative to exchange" dimension was present from the beginning, even if it was one-sided at first. The clear structuring of the cooperation meeting and the moderation by an independent mediator were helpful. A first challenge is "target group specific communication". Both business and technical teachers struggled with the vocabulary specific to their professions. Scaffolding strategies, repetition, and an accompanying glossary significantly improved communication within the team. In terms of 'knowledge integration', initial results showed that finding cross-connections between the two professions was challenging. This is because, over time, teachers have outgrown their current practical relevance. "Reflection on one's own discipline" also seems to be a challenge. As teachers generally do not have their own practical experience, they find it difficult to recognise the limits of their own discipline.

Finally, the aim of this study is to implement a long-term partnership between teachers to promote interdisciplinary thinking. But also, to gain insights into the conditions under which teams from different occupations can work together.

by Gerardo Moises Gutierrez Rivas

Navigating a world that constantly bombards us with images of individualistic practices, fragmented thinking, exclusion, dominant perspectives, separation, and polarization will affect how view the world, affect our aptitude for connecting, and even weaken our ability for integration. Clearly, this may happen without being fully aware of it. There is a great deal of literature stating how easy is to end up aligning with individualistic practices, exclusion, separation, and the imposing of dominant perspectives. As a matter of fact, individualism has been categorized as a global megatrend and polarization as tendency that is spreading globally.

As someone who has been able to see and experience the beauty of differences, I have been exploring creative ways to expose the people with whom I relate in my academic, professional, ministerial, and personal life to the beauty of integrating, connecting, including, etc., i.e., the beauty of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.

In this presentation I will share the creative strategies and ways that I have been developing and using to expose and inspire the students of our online Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Leadership to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary images/practices/thinking. Because of the nature of online programs, it becomes a bit more challenging to instill interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in students. Thus, one has to be rather intentional about exposing them and inspire them to see the beauty and the need for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. In this presentation I will share my efforts to be intentional about living out interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity.

by Jasmine Brooke Ulmer

User experience (UX) designers familiar with Jakob’s Law understand that users tend to value the familiar over innovations, even when those innovations are useful, beneficial, and necessary. In response to the expected challenge of familiarity bias, UX designers have often implemented what they call progressive disclosure design. For example, advanced features in software may sometimes be hidden from beginning users, only to be revealed as users gain more expertise. Similarly, video games are often designed in much the same way: gamers advance through levels such that skills are learned and acquired as the game progresses. Otherwise, beginners may initially feel overwhelmed with too much information and may not adopt the software or continue playing the game.

When practically realizing theoretical aspirations, inter- and transdisciplinary work can encounter something similar to familiarity bias. If researchers have been trained in a particular discipline, then they may not realize that they prefer to apply discipline-specific methods to problems for which those methods may not be (or may no longer be) best-suited. Put differently, even though more useful methods may exist, researchers might gravitate toward the disciplinary comfort of the already known. A strength of inter- and transdisciplinary work, then, is to seek to offer useful, beneficial, and necessary innovations. As such, could something like progressive disclosure design be used in inter- and transdisciplinarity? If so, can this principle be applied when teaching and learning methods and methodologies in higher education, as well?

Here, there seems to exist a classic chicken and egg challenge. When training new researchers, an efficient solution is to make new researchers very saliently aware that methods and methodologies are problem-specific, and that particular tools are designed to accomplish particular aims. However, if not trained under these inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to curricula, the problem is that the designers of inter- and transdisciplinary curricula will have their own familiarity biases to overcome, as many of us have advanced degrees in very narrow disciplinary content areas. So if an overarching goal of higher education is to move toward inter- and transdisciplinary work in this historical present and what is yet to come—and we know that Jakob’s Law still applies—then buy-in will most likely be accomplished successfully through something like progressive disclosure design alongside change management and change leadership approaches.

This presentation will outline several sequential actions toward achieving inter- and transdisciplinarity in higher education, including inviting all of the interested parties to create a shared and collaborative vision; involve task-oriented (versus discipline-oriented) workgroups; design an integration of the workgroups; implement the design; and then evaluate the design. This sequence of actions, too, draws on something very close to UX design with modifications: program evaluation. In other words, to overcome the challenges of implementing inter- and transdisciplinarity, we should always already be inter- and transdisciplinary ourselves, drawing on anything we know to be useful, beneficial, and necessary along the way.

by Helena Slanickova, Thijs Ringelberg

The relationship between the social sciences and philosophy has historically been close, with each field influencing the other. However, in our experience, a phenomenon we call "philosophy-hesitancy" – a general doubt or scepticism towards philosophy on the part of social scientists – can make constructive collaboration between the disciplines difficult. This project aims to deepen our understanding of the reservations that social scientists might have about philosophy in order to address the question: How does one best explain the usefulness of philosophy to empirically oriented social scientists?

Existing literature attempts to address philosophy-hesitancy by emphasizing the relevance of philosophical knowledge to the social sciences. We’ve identified three kinds of approaches: highlighting subject matter overlap (e.g. Thagard 2009), showcasing historical successes (e.g. Laplane et al. 2019), and using metaphors to explain the relationship between philosophical and scientific knowledge (some examples of this approach are listed by Thagard 2009).

However, we suggest that these approaches to addressing philosophy-hesitancy fall short because they do not explain why philosophical research is trustworthy or reliable. In particular, we hypothesise that a root cause of philosophy-hesitancy is a lack of knowledge about the inner workings of philosophical research amongst social scientists. Unlike philosophers whose curriculums typically cover the methods of empirical sciences, social scientists often lack clarity on the methods employed in philosophy. If this knowledge gap about methods is indeed a driving factor behind philosophy-hesitancy, then relevance-oriented approaches to overcoming it are unlikely to be effective.

This project aims to rectify the perceived shortcomings of existing approaches to explaining the usefulness of philosophy by focusing on how we should communicate the reliability of philosophical research to social scientists. It proceeds in two phases:

In Phase I we develop an account of philosophical methods that centres around reasoned arguments, which we break down into conceptual analysis, logical reasoning, and genealogical analysis. This account is designed to underscore the reliability of philosophical methods by stressing their continuity with those of the social sciences.

In Phase II, we empirically investigate the accuracy of our analysis of philosophy-hesitancy, and the effectiveness of the solution developed in Phase I. We will conduct surveys and focus groups with participants from an interdisciplinary collaboration between social sciences and philosophy in the Netherlands – these will conclude in April 2024.

The case this project focuses on is how philosophers should communicate about their discipline’s methods. But the insights it produces have more general applications. Problems analogous to philosophy-hesitancy appear to be a hallmark of many interdisciplinary collaborations. Presenting the background and motivation behind our project, our analysis of the problem, the setup and results of our empirical work, and our conclusions will therefore be instructive for those in other disciplines who face similar challenges in their interdisciplinary collaborations.

References:

• Laplane, Lucie et al. 2019. “Why Science Needs Philosophy.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116 (10): 3948–52.

• Thagard, Paul. 2009. “Why Cognitive Science Needs Philosophy and Vice Versa.” Topics in Cognitive Science 1 (2): 237–54.

by Mona F Giersberg, Yvette Baggen, Kaja A Chmielewska, Willem Grootoonk, Gerbrand B Koren, Shauna D O’Donovan, Spyridon Paparrizos, Despoina Georgiou

Imagine the following three pressing societal issues with differences in individual and collective relevance: nutrition, climate change, and animal welfare. Four researchers from different academic disciplines share a common challenge: effectively disseminating scientific information on these issues to non-academic audiences, empowering them to make informed decisions in their daily lives. When these researchers and their ideas converge in an unusual collaboration hub, the stage is set for our interdisciplinary learning journey centred around the project ‘My choice matters!’. In this contribution, we outline several opportunities and challenges encountered during our collaboration. Our aim is to not only motivate other researchers to co-create similar initiatives but also to inspire funding bodies to develop more appropriate grant schemes for interdisciplinary research.

‘My choice matters!’ is a so-called Spark project funded by the Centre for Unusual Collaborations (CUCo). CUCo serves as a learning hub within the strategic alliance of three Dutch universities and one university medical center (EWUU alliance), focusing on interdisciplinary cooperation without predetermined limitations. The Spark grant scheme is framed as a two-phase co-learning journey providing funding for societally relevant, outside-the-box interdisciplinary research that may not easily secure funding through traditional schemes. Phase one involves workshops designed to acquire interdisciplinary research competencies and establish multidisciplinary research teams to explore and develop ideas collaboratively. In phase two, initial teams receive support in the form of seed money to expand their team, further develop the research idea, and work towards a joint proposal for a larger project supported by CUCo.

The workshop structure of the Spark programme allowed us to collectively define the problem we seek to address with our research. This form of co-development fostered trust among team members and a real sense of team spirit right from the start. The seed allowed us to hire student assistants who were naturally integrated into our team and provided continuity and the necessary commitment during times in which the rest of the team was occupied with other obligations. The assistants also played a crucial role in facilitating the timely setup of a pilot study, allowing us to experiment with real-life scenarios by interviewing individuals from our target audience. This provided a boost of motivation within the team to continue and develop the project further.

However, we also faced several challenges during our collaboration. Initially, it was challenging to make the complementarity of the team members explicit in terms of their expertise beyond content areas and to expand the team accordingly with members who were not part of Spark phase one. Additionally, motivation dipped when we did not secure a larger grant after the seed funding phase, necessitating continued work on limited funds in preparation for the next funding opportunity. Through our journey, we learned that formulating clear goals and intermediate outputs is essential to keep up the motivation within the team. Similarly, effective leadership and facilitation are key to ensure continuity and progress.

by Victor Marchezini, Janaína Alencar Mota e Silva, Paula Sayeko Oda, Adriano Mota Ferreira, Monique Polera Sampaio, Karolina Gameiro, André Cotting

The frequency and intensity of weather extreme events are increasing worldwide. Vulnerability to heat waves, heavy rains and flash floods is heightened by mismanagement of local governments, institutional vulnerabilities, lack of implementation plans, ineffective warning systems. To face these social and environmental challenges is fundamental to coproduce organisational and institutional capacities for extreme events preparedness. One way to enhance capacities is through people-centred warning systems. This presentation shares interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods (participatory mapping, educommunication, citizen science) to engaging various audiences (high schools students, graduate students, NGOs representatives, and local civil defence units) in four axes of local warning systems ( risk knowledge, monitoring, communication and emergency response). There is a lack of comprehension of data and information used in warnings. People are developing their own networks of risk communication. There is a need for intergenerational dialogue to enhance people’s preparedness for extreme events, since experiences and memories about previous disasters are not being shared between young and older people. This action research project aims to finding ways to enhance institutional capacities to be prepared for extreme weather events.

by Elke Keup-Thiel, Esther Timm, Juliane El Zohbi, Diana Rechid, Florian Reith, Susanne Schuck-Zoeller

Participatory and interactive modes of scientific knowledge production have become promising concepts to tackle the multiple risks of a changing climate. Especially in climate services co-creation approaches are increasingly applied. Climate services are a broad and interdisciplinary field, related to the translation of climate research results for various applications in different sectors and the society in all. The aim is to tailor data and knowledge into customized information and products to support society in their attempts to deal with a changing climate.

In consideration of the fact that, above all, research processes in co-creation are estimated crucial for societal impacts (Maag 2018) the project NorQuATrans (Normativity, Objectivity and Quality of Transdisciplinary Processes, https://www.hicss-hamburg.de/projects/NorQuATrans/index.php.en) was implemented. The idea was – amongst others – to accompany transdisciplinary research projects and identify together quality aspects of the co-creation of climate services. Quality criteria and indicators for this mode of research processes were identified. As one of the results a formative evaluation scheme was developed by the NorQuATrans researchers together with colleagues from the project ADAPTER (ADAPT tERrestrial systems; https://adapter-projekt.org/) (Schuck-Zöller et al., 2022). To integrate the practitioners’ view, some of the most important quality criteria were reviewed by practitioners in an empirical study. Thus, the criteria can be further validated, and information will be gained about practitioners’ priorities. Which criteria do they see as most important, which ones as less? The work aimed at quality aspects mirroring the view of both, science of practice, and thus enhancing the acceptance of the evaluation scheme and related criteria.

The poster will present the study, its methodology and results. A pretest consisted of nine cognitive interviews applying different inquiry techniques. Thus, the practitioners ‘understanding of different terms related to the evaluation criteria was ascertained. On this basis a questionnaire was created, and the survey conducted. Pretest and survey delivered interesting results on how the practitioners rate the relevance of key quality criteria. And what is more, the study shed some light on the different ways of using terms and language. It, thus, delivered a basis for further studies on different language use and communicative behaviour in co-creative research processes. The results help to assure the quality of transdisciplinary scientific product development and contribute to an equitable integration of practitioners into the evaluation endeavours

by Geertje Tijsma, Baiba Prūse, Anna Stolyarova, Eduardo Urias

Our rapidly evolving society presents many complex and persistent sustainability that are dynamic and affect and involve many stakeholders with different values, perspectives and needs. There is increasing pressure on higher education to contribute to addressing these complex issues, as well as training our future professionals. This requires new and experimental approaches to teaching. We present a case study of interconnectedness between community engagement via street art practice in higher education curriculum. Our work showcase several pathways how the non-traditional approach facilitated unexplored opportunities for experiential learning in higher education setting.

As part of the Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning course (iCSL, Athena Institute, n.d.), in November and December 2023, 16 master students from different backgrounds and disciplines focused on real-world challenges, related to urban transitions in local neighbourhoods in Amsterdam. To support the students in this journey, at the beginning of the course the students visited Street Art Museum Amsterdam (SAMA) to gain more insights about the street art as a science communication approach. SAMA as a community-based, contemporary eco-museum applies street art as a tool for dialogue between stakeholders (SAMA, n.d.) and thus holds several case studies for the students to be inspired by. After the first visit the students engaged in various street interviews with residents about how they perceive urban transitions in their local neighbourhoods. Subsequently, students again joined a session facilitated by SAMA artist where they in groups made several street art-pieces using spray paint which aimed capture and represent the community voices of their focus neighbourhood (iCSL - Spray paint workshop, 2023).

Three main student learnings emerged from the analysis, namely, street-art was viewed from the students point of view as a bridge of (cultural) differences, as contributor to team building, and to incite new perspectives/values. When connecting these learnings to the situational factors of the course we found that using a format (in our case street art) that was new to the students eliminated hierarchy and biases and nurtured an equal learning context. Also, the two interaction moments (especially the tour) with SAMA were crucial to understand the value and potential of street art. Moreover, the freedom of the students in the design and how they gave meaning to the art piece was important as it allowed them for self-regulated learning. Finally, authors also noticed how crucial the nature of the community partner, namely, SAMA. The fact that SAMA applies street art as a tool for dialogue between stakeholders enabled and inspired the learnings of the students because they truly practice the combination of creativity and community building.

This paper indicates various values generated by engaging with street art as a tool for knowledge exchange thus going beyond the standard competency framework. We however also include some critical notes on our learning and what we might improve based on our students reflections. We aim to bring new breath of learnings where art (street art in our case) facilitates knowledge co-creation. The authors believe that the presented case study will serve as a real-world case study which holds a potential for other practitioners to replicate in different context.

References:

• Athena Institute. (n.d.) Interdisciplinary community service learning course. Available at: https://vu.nl/en/education/more-about/interdisciplinary-csl-course-1

• iCSL. (2023). Spray paint workshop. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb4Y7GX22qc

• SAMA. (n.d.). Street Art Museum Amsterdam. Available at: https://www.streetartmuseumamsterdam.com/

by Susann Görlinger, Leonhard Späth

Societies today are facing major global challenges, including climate change, loss of biodiversity, the energy system transformation, and complex interdependencies of critical supply-chains. Many of these challenges lead to so-called “wicked problems”, which are characterized as ill-defined, where different actors see problems and their potential solutions differently. Transdisciplinarity has proven to be key to address such challenges and to generally accelerate the transition towards a sustainable society. Through a transdisciplinary approach, solutions to sustainability problems, jointly defined by stakeholders and scientists, can be designed such that they are adapted to the specific needs of people who are affected. To enable this approach, research carried out in the last two decades at ETH Zurich’s Transdisciplinary Lab (TdLab) provides a broad set of concepts, methods and tools that have been successfully applied in various projects on a diversity of topics. To make these concepts and tools more widely applicable, especially outside the academic world, we are currently establishing a TdLab spin-off with the expertise to co-design, facilitate, support, and evaluate sustainability transformation projects.

Deploying Td approaches and Living Labs are possible in many fields. One of the fields where we want to offer our knowledge and tools by summer 2024 is the reduction of business flights in different contexts, such as academia, organizations, and businesses. Greenhouse gas emissions from business flights play a significant role in most organizations. Technological solutions and adjustments to internal travel guidelines are important, but not sufficient. On the way to a climate-neutral society, demand reduction, i.e. a reduction of flights, is also necessary. To be competitive in a net-zero world, a cultural change concerning mobility is needed in every organization. However, this is not an easy process, as it also requires a cultural change and a change in the framework conditions. We therefore offer to accompany this cultural change. We support in analyzing and adapting the current processes, defining a reduction path, and implementing it to reduce business flights. This happens in a participatory process so that the organization and employees are part of the transformation. Furthermore, reducing flights can also serve as a blueprint for further transformation processes on the way to a sustainable society.

Our activities are based on a set of concepts and tools developed at the USYS TdLab of ETH Zurich, which enables us to actively contribute to the quality of projects encompassing science and society. This entails tools e.g. to enable a joint problem framing process with different stakeholder groups, to integrate different worldviews, perspectives, knowledge types, and to experiment innovative solutions in the real world. To implement these science-based solutions, we emphasize the broad application of these methods as a complement to the theory-based development work carried out at TdLab. The overarching goal of the Spin-off is therefore to find and co-design sustainable solutions that are based on science, through a participatory process.

by Jan-Peter Sandler, Branko Andic, Maryvonne Nieboer, Nina Troelsgard Jensen, Verena Witte, Carmen Cretu, James Mc Geever, Luca Corazzini, Marca Wolfensberger, Anne-Mieke Vandamme

Developing and implementing transdisciplinarity in higher education is a pathway with many challenges (Idsøe, 2019). We urgently need innovative pedagogies for students, teachers and stakeholders to collaborate, learn and explore complex societal issues by integrating various viewpoints, leading to alternative ways of understanding and innovative approaches (Pohl, 2018; Roy et al., 2020). Meanwhile, our traditional education models are limited in fostering the necessary competencies for transdisciplinary research (Bernstein, 2015; Kawa et al. 2021).

We propose a classical A0 poster of the STEAM-TRAIL map (https://steam-plus.vercel.app/trail). The STEAM-TRAIL map is visualised as a metro-map to make it attractive for viewers. We will add a QR code to access and navigate the map directly on viewers’ phones.

The STEAM-TRAIL map was created by the European STEAM+ project (steamtalent.eu). The collaborative effort of the project partners highlighted the importance of transdisciplinary education in preparing students for future challenges, advocating a shift towards more integrative, innovative educational practices. The STEAM-TRAIL map serves as a knowledge repository and guide for higher education institutes across Europe to start and enhance their own transdisciplinary courses.

STEAM+ aimed to connect STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and addressing the complexity of societal challenges holistically by integrating STEM with all other fields (the A in STEAM) through transdisciplinary innovation labs (TRAIL). These labs promote hands-on, innovative approaches to teaching and learning based on the three pillars of honours pedagogy operationalised by Wolfensberger (2012): (1) offering bounded freedom (see also: Kingma et al., 2018), (2) engendering academic competences (see also: Canrinus et al., 2020), and (3) creating committed community (see also: Heijne-Penninga & Wolfensberger, 2018; Canrinus et al., 2021).

Our comprehensive guide for integrating transdisciplinary innovation labs addresses a need for a collaborative and transdisciplinary approach in higher education to tackle complex societal challenges like climate change and pandemics, which cannot be solved by STEM disciplines alone. The STEAM-TRAIL map provides guidance to European Higher Education Institutes on the design and implementation of transdisciplinary education. The map provides a structured framework based on talent program experimentation for educators, students, policymakers, and higher education institutes to co-create a transdisciplinary innovation lab. Talent programs or honours programs play a pivotal role as laboratories for educational innovation (Wolfensberger et al., 2012; Kolster, 2021; van Eijl, 2023).

Our poster will present the STEAM-TRAIL map as a valuable guide for higher education institutes to enhance STEM education with STEAM labs to foster talent development across Europe. It will emphasize the necessity for closer collaboration between educators, students, policymakers, and higher education institutes using clear examples and actionable steps for implementation. The map has inspired the development of the TRAIL-tool by the Avans Transdisciplinary Cooperation in Education research group. They have submitted a workshop proposal to the conference about the tool.

by Natalie Liebrechts-de Beer, Chantal Velthuis

Interdisciplinary collaboration is difficult, and it requires explicit training to prepare students for addressing wicked problems in an interdisciplinary team (Di Giulio & Defila, 2017). Students underestimate interdisciplinary work (Velthuis & van Harmelen, 2021). Therefore, it is important to provide students with an insight into what interdisciplinary collaboration entails, why it is important to learn, and to teach students interdisciplinary skills like: (1) setting a common goal; (2) understand and value different relevant disciplinary understandings; (3) integrating relevant insights; and (4) maintaining critical towards different (and one's own) disciplines (Boix-Mansilla et al., a.o., 2010, 2016). Several toolboxes have already been developed with various examples of learning activities/tools that teachers and students can use to support interdisciplinary collaboration (e.g. Edelbroek et al., 2014 Educational Consultancy & Professional Development, 2021 & The Twente Toolbox, 2024). Despite all these tools, it appears to be difficult for teachers to support learning in interdisciplinary teams (Visscher-Voerman & van Harmelen, 2019). Therefore, the research question in this study focuses particularly on the teacher. Based on what reasons do teachers choose learning activities to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration in interdisciplinary teams? How should interdisciplinary learning activities be designed so that they suit teachers' needs? And how do they experience the implementation of the learning activity and has it contributed to interdisciplinary cooperation of students?

For this research, we selected activities from various toolboxes that meet the following criteria: the learning activity (1) can be used as a mean to enhance collaboration while working on a wicked problem within different modules, (2) supports the learning of an interdisciplinary skill and (3) encourages dialogue between students. The research is conducted with teachers within modules in various years of study (year 2, 3 and 4) in which students work in interdisciplinary teams on wicked problems.

The selection and implementation of learning activities and the redesign so that the learning activities suits the needs of teachers within their modules will take place from now until the summer 2024. The execution of the modules with the interdisciplinary learning activities will take place from February 2024 till December 2024.

The first experiences show that teachers have a strong need to strengthen their interdisciplinary teaching. In particular, learning activities to get to know each other's discipline better are chosen, such as knowledge-based concept mapping task (The Twente Toolbox, 2024) or spending a day with students from another discipline. Knowledge-based concept mapping asks students (individually or in the group) to visually represent their existing knowledge relevant to the wicked problem. This can help students make connections between disciplines and identify contradictions. The poster will share results about teacher needs in using learning activities in interdisciplinary teams and first experiences will be shared of performing the learning activities and whether it actually resulted in students getting to know each other’s discipline better and integrating knowledge from different disciplines. In addition, we expect to have a better view on how we will further develop the learning activity so that teachers and students will use it properly.

by Christianne Smit, Gertjan Plets

The enduring impacts of colonialism and slavery have become prominent themes across various academic fields, prompting the need for interdisciplinary efforts. As society grapples with contentious monuments and the restitution of colonial artefacts, the discipline of heritage studies has assumed a crucial role in confronting these issues and fostering novel collaborations across disciplinary boundaries and global divides. By drawing upon methodologies and perspectives from anthropology, cultural history, and art history, heritage studies have devised strategies and guidelines for addressing colonial heritage through collaborative and inclusive approaches. Acquiring the requisite skills and expertise necessitates hands-on experience and experimentation, posing challenges for integrating such practices into the current educational frameworks of heritage studies and cultural history.

Using an international community-engaged educational (iCEL) framework, we formulated a teaching format for teaching decolonial heritage practices and fostering collaborative skills among students. Through collaboration with a heritage partner in the Global South (Terramar Museum), we devised a museum-based project centred on exhibition design and co-curation. The project's focal point was navigating the complexities of colonial heritage, requiring students to negotiate their roles as trained experts in heritage and museum studies while acknowledging their position within the context of colonial power.

Through seminars, pressure-cooker sessions, and fieldwork conducted in collaboration with our partner, we developed an educational framework with several key objectives:

• Training students to acquire intercultural reflexive and collaborative skills;

• Assisting lecturers in establishing and learning from interconnected networks with partners in the Global South;

• Integrating critical systems thinking and visions of societal transformation within the academic program;

• Supporting the development of resilient cultural heritage institutions in the Global South.

Our model originates from participatory involvement in a collaborative project involving students and lecturers from Utrecht University, the Terramar Museum in Bonaire, and Bonairean formerly enslaved communities. Operating within the framework of a Cultural History and Heritage Master’s programme at Utrecht University, we collectively crafted a teaching model for decolonial heritage practices in an intercultural setting, utilizing CEL as both a method and a tool. Through the integration of diverse bodies of knowledge—ranging from academic to societal, and from personal to professional—all project participants adopted fluid identities as both educators and learners. Additionally, they encountered intersectional challenges, leading to instances of 'misunderstandings and confusion' (Cf. Agar), yet also yielding 'rich moments' of cultural immersion and profoundly meaningful learning experiences (Cf. Agar, Deardorff, Onosu).

By exploring and analysing this iCEL project, we aim to present an inspiring and illuminating example of a transdisciplinary model for education in the field of heritage studies. We hope that this project, in which confrontational sensitive topics were at the centre of the academic context, and this educational format, in which cross-cultural co-creative collaborations were at the heart, can function as an educational design of change.

Key readings

• Agar, M. (1994). Language shock. Understanding the culture of conversation. New York: HarperCollins.

• Deardorff, D.K. (2006). Identification and assessment of intercultural competence as a student outcome of internationalization. Journal of studies in international education, 10(3), 241-266.

• Onosu, O.G. (2020). Cultural immersion: a trigger for transformative learning. Social Sciences, 9(20), doi:10.3390/socsci9020020

by Dagmar Berg-Mölleken, Henrik von Wehrden

Initiated in 2018, the Sustainability Methods Wiki (sustainabilitymethods.org) at Leuphana Center of Methods offers a broad overview of the multiverse of inter- and transdisciplinary methods. It is written and curated by an extensive team with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and experience ranging from students to professors. The ambition of the wiki is to foster a postdisciplinary agenda, i.e. contributing to a radical yet constructive change to the current scientific agenda in recognizing the normativity of scientific methods. Within the growing plurality of methodological toolboxes, there is a need to systematically discuss the “better” or “worse” of certain methods within a given context and to make sense of the variety of terms and concepts used differently and in overlap creating a messy discourse. With the Sustainability Methods Wiki, we present an integrative, diverse, reflexive, and interactively accessible platform to support a new generation of scientists that can navigate the plurality of methods representing inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. Entries in the wiki bridge practical advice for the empirical use of specific methods and critical perspectives on the philosophy of science. Addressing linguistic challenges between disciplines in the wiki, we set different contexts of empirical research in relation to each other and discuss the drawbacks, challenges, and benefits of the diverse methodological approaches and their potential combinations. Structured by design criteria for methods and defined methods competencies, the wiki provides a platform for students, researchers, and teachers to systematically reflect on learning, applying, and teaching methods beyond the boundaries of disciplines and academia.

The poster presents an overview of the wiki landscapes of methods and introduces the underlying systematizing logic as well as access points for using the wiki’s potential.

by Nadin Gaasch, Melanie Kryst

We all know the nature of card games from our individual experiences: They strengthen the sense of community, the ability to communicate, concentration and, depending on the card game, increase vocabulary or specific knowledge. Why not using these positive characteristics to foster the integration of different stocks of knowledge – from specialist knowledge and everyday experiential knowledge to scientific knowledge? Knowledge integration poses to be the core of transdisciplinary research. At the same time, the step of knowledge integration is a major challenge: How can we create new knowledge on complex societal challenges that goes beyond the addition of existing knowledge and that, in particular, leads to action?

The card game was a tool that we developed for a complex process in which scientific and non-scientific actors from the field of urban health came together to jointly define challenges of urban health in the Berlin living space and to explore research topics in an early, initiating stage of transdisciplinary research. The poster outlines the origins of the card game as documentation of a previous process stage. In addition, the poster shows the exact instructions for the game, highlighting the individual phases of the game reflecting different stages of knowledge integration: from individual understanding, through shared explanations and shared understanding, to the co-production of new knowledge and the development of research ideas.

We have had very positive experiences with the use of the game - and received very encouraging feedback from both academics and practitioners. The card game was able to make different professional and disciplinary languages and styles of thinking visible as a basis to create a common understanding. Above all, the card game addressed the cognitive level in particular in order to move beyond habitual ways of working and to promote creativity.

by Helena Winiger

For the governance of technologies, societal complexities rooting in the advancement of technologies need to be addressed not only within the concrete resulting problems but also in their ways of emergence. Inter- and transdisciplinary research is in high demand to address the manifold dimensions of such complex problems. Furthermore, a socio-technical study of the technical areas that provide the basis for such emerging problems is strongly called for. Despite existing policies, however, inter-and transdisciplinarity are still not fully mainstreamed in the scientific community concerned with such emergent problems. Besides, socio-technical governance, including through policy and standardization, is not yet responsive enough to address arising complex problems.

This study is anchored in Science and Technology Studies and embedded in the broader research project “Investigating interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity: intersections of practices, culture(s) and policy in collaborative knowledge production (INTERSECTIONS)" (funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation). The project aims at improving the theoretical foundations of both inter- and transdisciplinarity by taking a meta-research perspective. It is studying underlying sociocultural patterns of research and development processes that are revealed in such intersections.

This poster presentation will approach the problem by assessing the role of norms in inter- and transdisciplinary research and development of socio-technical systems. Norms can be understood as an approved standard or a form of behavior or action that is accepted by a majority of people. Norms allow me to target gradations of system-theoretical causes and action-theoretical reasons for behavior in science and technology cultures on institutional levels. I will show how existing institutional epistemic and technical norms lead to a disciplinary normalization in science and technology, and, in consequence, to challenges for inter- and transdisciplinary research.

The poster will address the research question: How do norms lead to normalization and governance processes? And what are the roles norms play in understanding inter- and transdisciplinary socio-technical settings? To approach it, I will focus on socio-technical systems and imaginaries in inter- and transdisciplinary cultures of technical domains, zooming in on the role of norms that can be observed in the practices and policies of technical domains. Balancing both a system- and action-theoretical approach helps to address the high complexity of socio-technical systems and their dynamics while human agency in the form of a pragmatist space for governance and transdisciplinary engagement is empowered.

In this study, qualitative methods are used. A comprehensive literature review provides the position and framework of the study, inter- and transdisciplinarily grounding the topic of norms in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Participant observations and semi-structured interviews in a Swiss center for competence in research conducting inter- and transdisciplinary research while encompassing different socio-technical systems contribute empirically to the conceptual approach.

My findings indicate that inter- and transdisciplinary research practices, epistemic cultures, and policies as well as their intersections can be understood and reconstructed through the lens of norms. An in-depth understanding of such norms can lead to an improved foundation of inclusive governance mechanisms in research and development processes, e.g., in the case of emerging technologies.

by Julia Thompson, Nuray Duman

“Inclusivity” and “transformation” are commonly used descriptors in research proposals, but there is a gap in translating the words into action, of “walking the talk.”

Participatory Action Research (PAR) is an approach that prioritizes the inclusion and leadership of the involved communities in all stages of research, aiming for non-extractive research and the co-production of knowledge with community researchers and practitioners (Cornish et al, 2023). Horizon Europe funding calls explicitly specify employing a multi-actor approach, requiring “genuine and sufficient involvement of [practitioners and (end) users] (…) over the whole course of the project” (p. 21-22, Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023-2024). However, the Horizon Europe project proposals are largely conceived, developed, and written by academics, perpetuating and recreating the status quo of the academic research ecosystem. This creates a seeming paradox, a tension between the stated goals of the research project and the means by which the research project came into being. Can a Horizon Europe project “add on” PAR to create space for inclusivity and transformation?

The Horizon Europe project currently under study is FOSTER (Fostering food system transformation by integrating heterogeneous perspectives in knowledge and innovation within the European Research Area). Begun in 2022, a status assessment and a needs assessment of six partner community organizations have been completed, and the third phase of the project (engagement in joint action) is beginning (actual stand, March 2024). PAR has been selected (by the academic researchers) as the methodology for the third phase. There is an opportunity and a hope for co-creation, but real systemic challenges to radical collaboration exist.

Muhar and Penker’s framework offers a possibility for analyzing the co-production of knowledge, asking the question, “Who can contribute what kind of knowledge in which phase of a transdisciplinary project and why?” In answering this question, we will analyze post hoc the initial (pre-PAR) phases of the project and examine the rollout of PAR in the third phase. Existing data sets (e.g. focus group transcripts) and new data (e.g. interviews) will be used in the analysis, with the goal of examining how structures and contexts can permit or restrict knowledge co-production between academic and community researchers.

by Rachel Claus

High-quality transdisciplinary research is critical for advancing knowledge and contributing to societal progress. Research evaluation influences the decisions about which research projects receive funding. However, defining quality for research approaches that transcend traditional disciplinary and professional boundaries presents challenges. Consequently, inter and transdisciplinary research that aims to make societal contributions can be disadvantaged in science policy decisions to grant research funding (Guthrie, Gigha & Wooding, 2018). Given the lack of well-established criteria for evaluating transdisciplinary research, there is an opportunity to learn lessons from practice and identify areas for improvement (Hug & Aeschbach, 2020). The success of the grant review process in encouraging and funding high-quality transdisciplinary research depends on how quality is defined, interpreted, and evaluated. To support a transparent grant peer review process that assesses transdisciplinary research fairly, the quality criteria that provide reference points for research proposal quality evaluation must be examined.

This poster presents ongoing doctoral research on the quality criteria for evaluating research proposals in an international research for development context. It presents the results of an analysis of quality criteria used by the top 10 financial contributors to CGIAR and outlines the next steps for the research. The study aimed to determine the alignment between the quality criteria applied in international research for development and a common transdisciplinary quality assessment framework. It addresses the question: what quality criteria are used by leading international research for development funders? The criteria were collected from funding agency websites for CGIAR-eligible grants and subsequently analyzed in NVivo using an open coding approach, referencing Belcher et al., (2016)’s transdisciplinary quality assessment framework. Consistent with Falk-Krzenski & Tobin (2015), funders are primarily interested in whether the proposed project aligns with their mission, addresses a significant knowledge gap with a rigorous approach, and whether the researchers are sufficiently competent to complete the study. The criteria reviewed variably include and emphasize transdisciplinary research qualities, and use a variety of formats and appraisal methods. Criteria that do not adequately capture the qualities of transdisciplinary research may explain why such proposals are disadvantaged for funding. The study has the potential to be replicated across research contexts and funding agencies to inform improvements to the criteria that guide proposal development and peer review practice to encourage and reward high-quality transdisciplinary research.

References

• Belcher, B. M., Rasmussen, K. E., Kemshaw, M. R., & Zornes, D. A. (2016). Defining and assessing research quality in a transdisciplinary context. Research Evaluation, 25(1), 1-17.

• Falk-Krzesinski, H. J., & Tobin, S. C. (2015). How do I review thee? Let me count the ways: A comparison of research grant proposal review criteria across US federal funding

• agencies. The journal of research administration, 46(2), 79.

• Guthrie, S., Ghiga, I., & Wooding, S. (2018). What do we know about grant peer review in the health sciences?. F1000Research, 6.

• Hug, S. E., & Aeschbach, M. (2020). Criteria for assessing grant applications: A systematic review. Palgrave Communications, 6(1), 1-15.

by Maxine Fromm

To move towards a sustainable society, significant transitions are needed within industry, ranging from greening energy consumption to using more sustainable raw materials and products. The multi-faceted nature of this industry transition poses complex questions of justice regarding aspects such as intergenerational justice, decision-making procedures and the redistribution of profits. Despite a flourishing scholarship on just transitions, these questions have so far not been precisely investigated in the context of the industry. As policymakers are currently developing new policy instruments to accelerate the sustainable industry transition, now is the time to uncover relevant justice implications. Instead of only addressing justice issues once they have materialized, it is necessary to find ways in which justice implications can be identified to inform and guide policies beforehand.

I propose that the creation of a transdisciplinary dialogue can function as a tool to do so. Dialogues allow for knowledge co-production and can foster collaboration in a participatory and inclusive way. The Sustainable Industry Lab, a transdisciplinary initiative that brings together different stakeholders to unlock and synthesize knowledge, is thus organizing a dialogue on the justice implications of the sustainable industry transition. The dialogue will be held between the Dutch government, industry and societal as well as environmental organizations. As the sustainable industry transition presents a wicked problem, which means that its inherent complexity and uncertainties do not allow for clear-cut solutions, the main goal of the dialogue is identifying and structuring justice-related issues, rather than solving them. Accordingly, the dialogue utilizes problem structuring methods, which are participatory modelling approaches for addressing complex problems that entail multiple actors who may have conflicting interests. My research focuses on (i) how transdisciplinary dialogues should be organized to ensure fruitful collaboration and (ii) how the outcomes and impacts of this dialogue can be evaluated and utilized. Therefore, it aligns with the conference stream ‘enhancing the foundations of inter- and transdisciplinary’ and addresses the topic ‘harnessing experience and knowledge gained from inter- and transdisciplinary projects and programs’.

The first round of the dialogue will be held from March-September 2024. Afterwards, further dialogue sessions will be held on more specific topics that have emerged out of the first round. The ITD Conference would be a great opportunity to present the insights and results of the first round of the dialogue and discuss how these insights can be evaluated and used for the next round of dialogue sessions.