Community news
Here you will find all the news of the last four months from the transdisciplinary community. The website is constantly updated. If you have any messages you would like to share, please do not hesitate to contact us.
17.06.2025, Universität Würzburg
Stadt und Uni Würzburg starten gemeinsames Transformationslabor
Mit einer feierlichen Auftaktveranstaltung ist das „Transformationslabor Stadt und Universität Würzburg“ gestartet. Ziel ist es, gemeinsam Lösungen für gesellschaftliche Transformationsprozesse zu entwickeln und zu erproben.
17.06.2025, TA-SWISS
2024 – an exemplary year for TA-SWISS
While many scientific institutions and public administrations strive to anticipate technological developments and their implications, TA-SWISS's scope is broader in that it analyses technological trends from a wide-ranging, macrosocial. At the express request of the Swiss parliament, it assesses technological trends from a wide-ranging, macrosocial perspective, outlining options for action.
In its annual report the Foundation provides insight into the various mechanisms put in place to ensure the relevance, breadth and analytical depth and quality of its interdisciplinary reports. 2024 can be seen as a prime example of this, with the foundation publishing four significant studies while simultaneously working on or initiating five additional projects.
17.06.2025, i2Insights
Apirl-June 2025 i2S News
The April-June 2025 i2S News provides the latest developments in the Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) theoretical framework covering research approaches, imperfection, and trust. Further, 19 tools were added to two repositories covering change, decision making, diversity, integration, research implementation, stakeholder engagement, systems and teamwork. In addition, there are two new videos featuring a South–North dialogue and pioneering teaching efforts, as well as two new blog posts discussing artificial intelligence
17.06.25, i2Insights
i2Insights Contributions
AI, Africa and advice on planning stakeholder workshops feature in recent stand-out contributions to i2Insights blog and repository. Faye Miller highlights capacities essential for transdisciplinarians to make the most of AI; Basirat Oyalowo lays out the critical role for TD in in achieving higher education’s third mission in Africa and PhD student, Maxine Fromm, provides practical lessons for planning transdisciplinary stakeholder workshops.
17.06.2025, i2Insights
Harnessing the collision of four ways of knowing
By Adrian Wolfberg.
How can solving today’s most complex challenges reckon with four fundamentally different ways of knowing? How can the collision of their distinct epistemic strengths and blind spots be harnessed for innovation in threat assessment and decision-making on complex problems?
26.05.25, Utrecht University
Applications open: Governance, Design and Delivery of Interdisciplinary Higher Education Summer School, 27-31 October 2025, Utrecht, The Netherlands
Utrecht University has adopted a comprehensive approach to broadening and deepening its interdisciplinary teaching & learning portfolio on all levels of education (bachelor’s, master’s, PhD and continuing education). The course combines theory and experiments in the governance of interdisciplinary higher education (IHE) with educational development and teacher professionalization for IHE and with research of IHE.
Registration deadline: 20 June 2025
26.05.2025, SCNAT
Roles of scientists in society
Current challenges such as the transformation towards sustainable ways of living require a closer collaboration of science with society and politics. How scientists can support such societal processes most effectively depends on the situation and the topic. A new guide for reflecting on possible roles in sustainability transformations as well as general principles derived from it help to analyse the different roles of researchers in society. These are available online on a new website.
22.05.25, i2insights, intereach
Video online: Measuring What Matters in Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Developing and Testing the Perspective Integration Capability (PIC) Scale
The video of the great webinar “Measuring What Matters in Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Developing and Testing the Perspective Integration Capability (PIC) Scale” by Maritza Salazar Campo is now on the Integration and Implementation Sciences Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/i2sTalks/.
This webinar is the seventh in the series Intentional Integration: How do we know if it’s working?
It’s in a playlist called “Intereach webinar series.” The direct url is: https://youtu.be/GGl5Pt-F0Cs
22.05.25, Utrecht University
Five-Legged Sheep?
Colleagues from the Netherlands are undertaking an explorative survey into inter- and transdisciplinary PhDs as part of the project: Five-Legged Sheep? Selecting, Training, Supervising and Rewarding Inter- and Transdisciplinary Researchers. They seek input from supervisors of inter- and transdisciplinary PhD projects through a survey. The survey covers 6 themes: your academic profile, experience with PhD supervision, motivations for PhD supervision, selection and hiring of inter- and transdisciplinary PhD candidates, team supervision, and competencies for inter- and transdisciplinary PhD supervision. Completing it is found to take approximately 20 minutes. The team is very grateful if you take the time to share your experiences!
19.05.25, Mountain Reserach and Development
Mountain Research and Development Vol 45, No 1: Woodland Resurgence and Sustainability in Mountains
How can woodland resurgence best benefit people and nature? Articles in this focus issue reflect the diversity of woodland resurgence across mountain contexts, as well as the growing importance of restoration in the context of this phenomenon. In the MountainDevelopment section, contributions assess an Andean forest restoration project in Peru and a reforestation project integrating local ecological knowledge in Nepal. Articles in the MountainResearch section focus on forest structural complexity in Nepal and on farm trees as cultural keystone species in Morocco. In the MountainPlatform section, GLOMOS shares experiences from its first 5 years of action, and ARU presents its Malagasy Mountain Programme; both invite cooperation and partnerships.
19.05.25, i2insights, Gabriele Bammer
How individual members can contribute to effective team functioning
For team dynamics to work effectively, what is the range of contributions that needs to be covered by different team members? How can diversity in skills relevant to team functioning be effectively recognised and harnessed? Here the focus is not on the actual task the team is trying to accomplish, but rather the dynamics of working together and the different contributions or roles required for effective team functioning.
01.05.25
Eine Plattform für zukunftsfähiges Bauen und Wohnen – für mehr bezahlbaren Wohnraum in Deutschland
Deutsches Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung
Bezahlbares Wohnen zählt zu den drängendsten Herausforderungen der Gesellschaft. Gleichzeitig kommt der Transformation des Bausektors eine immense Bedeutung zu, um Ressourcen zu schonen und den Klimawandel zu bekämpfen. In dem von acatech – Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften koordinierten Projekt "Bauen & Wohnen: Plattform für Vernetzung, Synthese und Transfer" geht es darum, Hürden von sozialen und technologischen Innovationen für mehr bezahlbaren Wohnraum im Bestand zu identifizieren und praxisnahe Lösungen zu entwickeln.
29.04.25
Evaluating Convergence Methods from an Administrator's Perspective
Intereach
The video of the great webinar “Evaluating Convergence Methods from an Administrator's Perspective” by Jason Owen-Smith, Levent Atici and Maude Cuchiara is now on the Integration and Implementation Sciences Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/i2sTalks/.
This webinar is the sixth in the series Intentional Integration: How do we know if it’s working?
It’s in a playlist called “Intereach webinar series.” The direct url is: https://youtu.be/FO2JjmkKXGI
29.04.25
Save the Date 02. Dezember 2025: Saguf goes SUD – Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen vernetzen und stärken
saguf, University IDG Coalition, OST Ostschweizer Fachhochschule
Nach dem erfolgreichen Aufbau des SUD (Sustainable University Day) in den letzten Jahren durch das Programm U Change der Akademien der Wissenschaften Schweiz, als Austauschplattform für Studierende, Forschende, Dozierende und Hochschulmitarbeitende in der Schweiz, wird die Veranstaltung ab 2025 neu aufgestellt. Die Co-Organisation 2025 übernimmt die saguf (Schweizerische Akademische Gesellschaft für Umweltforschung und Ökologie) gemeinsam mit der Swiss University IDG Coalition und der OST Ostschweizer Fachhochschule.
Am 2. Dezember 2025 treffen sich an der OST in Rapperswil interessierte Teilnehmende aus der ganzen Schweiz, um sich zu vernetzen, voneinander zu lernen und gemeinsam über transversale Nachhaltigkeitsthemen und die Inner Development Goals (IDGs) als Schlüssel für Wandel zu sprechen.
Das vielseitige Programm wird derzeit erarbeitet und soll bis zu 150 Teilnehmende und insbesondere auch die Junge Generation an Forschenden erreichen.
Jetzt schon vormerken: Dienstag, 2. Dezember 2025 in Rapperswil
Das detaillierte Programm und die Anmeldung folgen demnächst.
Die aktuellsten Infos erhältst du via https://saguf.ch.
29.04.25
Out and about sustainably in Bern updated
University of Bern, Education for Sustainable Development
How we get around, what we consume, how we live – our behavior and our decisions shape our environment.
This booklet invites you, as a student at the University of Bern, to think about what you need for a good, satisfying life. It follows the sufficiency approach, which emphasizes wealth in time and space over wealth in goods and money. In chapters covering “Getting around”, “At home”, “Eating & drinking”, “Conscious consumption”, and “Culture & events”, we have gathered together useful facts, ideas, and tips.
25.04.25
The Julie Thompson Klein Prize has been awarded
Global Social Challenges Journal
The Editors of Global Social Challenges Journal are delighted to announce that the inaugural Julie Thompson Klein Prize has been awarded to Henrietta Palmer, Merritt Polk and Elena Raviola for their article:
The prize was established in honour of the memory of Professor Julie Thompson Klein (1944-2023). Julie was a founding Editor in Chief of Global Social Challenges Journal and, as you all know, a very significant figure in the evolution and prominence of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity as a community of practice.
The Julie Thompson Klein Prize recognises the best research article using inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to one or more global societal challenges. Read the prize winning article, along with some honourable mentions in the Julie Thompson Klein Prize collection.
25.04.25
Navigating the spectrum of leadership styles
i2insights, Gemma Jiang, Jenny Grabmeier and Joan Lurie
When you are in a leadership role, are you able to shift your leadership style to accommodate the needs of your team and project? When consensus is hard to reach, are you able to step in with a directive approach? Are you able to hold back from being directive when creativity and participation are needed?
25.04.25
New Academic Journal founded: The Journal of Creative Research Methods
Bristol University Press
The Journal of Creative Research Methods is a space for the creative research methods community; it publishes critical and engaged work on creative research methods and welcomes contributions from authors across all disciplines and sectors. Creative methods as a field where researchers are thinking, questioning, or approaching research in a creative way, drawing from creative disciplines and practices, or extending these to other disciplines which have not traditionally foregrounded creative practices. The first issue is planned for September.
07.04.25
What roles do you play in inter- and transdisciplinary projects?
i2insights, Salomon H., Hofmann B., Hofmann S.
What roles do researchers typically play in inter- and transdisciplinary projects? How can they be made transparent in order to reflect on them?
Inter- and transdisciplinary projects typically require different roles and the researchers involved may play one or more of them. There is a plethora of literature describing various ideal-typical roles and we used the literature on researchers’ roles in sustainability science to develop a reflection tool on researcher roles in inter- and transdisciplinary projects.