Community news

On 25 November 2025, i2Insights celebrated its 10th birthday as a toolkit to support researchers and educators tackling complex societal and environmental problems, specifically providing tools to understand and address complexity. It sets out to be:

• global, with contributions from around the world

• comprehensive, tackling all aspects of addressing complex problems

• living, continuing to grow and stay up-to-date.

It’s a good time to reinvigorate the aims, strengthen the toolkit and celebrate achievements.

Stories spark curiosity, foster empathy, and make complex ideas accessible — an approach at the heart of the Swiss Young Academy’s podcast series Spark – Stories from Advocates for Global Change. Aimed at young adults aged 16 to 23, the podcast offers an accessible introduction to transdisciplinary science. Through engaging narratives, it shows how collaboration across disciplines and practice partners can address societal challenges while highlighting diverse scientific career paths.

How can innovation contribute to sustainability in mountains? Articles in this focus issue explore the question from different angles, providing insights from China and various European mountain contexts. In the editorial, Guest Editors Jörg Balsiger, Anne B. Zimmermann, João Carlos Azevedo, and Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt reflect on different framings of innovation and its role in sustainable mountain development.

In times of uncertainty, especially when the role of research, as well as research funding are under threat, how can research teams effectively respond? How can storytelling help?

The Inter- and Transdisciplinary (ITD) PhD Supervision Guide is now available from the ITD Alliance Early Career Researchers (ECR) Working Group. The ITD PhD Supervision Guide synthesizes scholarly discussions and experiences on ITD supervision challenges and insights, and provides questions for discussion and reflection, enabling doctoral researchers and their supervisors to exchange ideas, enhance communication, and navigate the complexities of the PhD journey together.

• two posts on co-design: six elements to make it effective (https://i2insights.org/2025/09/30/effective-co-design/) and co-design with Indigenous leaders (https://i2insights.org/2025/10/21/co-designing-for-first-nations-leadership)

• two posts on interdisciplinary collaborations: three ways of designing them (https://i2insights.org/2025/10/07/types-of-interdisciplinary-collaborations/) and a self-assessment checklist (https://i2insights.org/2025/11/04/interdisciplinarity-research-checklist/)

• one post on developing collaboration norms (https://i2insights.org/2025/10/28/developing-collaboration-norms/).

The School for Transdisciplinary Studies (STS) at the University of Zurich marks its fifth anniversary with a report highlighting people, milestones, and projects that shaped its journey. The publication reflects on how the STS has become a hub for inter- and transdisciplinary teaching and learning at UZH – and invites readers to explore the people and stories behind it

What strategies are different countries pursuing to achieve the sweeping transformation needed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050? This year's report by the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment Network (EPTA) takes a close look at the structural shifts underway in the energy systems of 18 European countries and regions, along with Japan and the United States. It explores the technological and industrial hurdles along the way and weighs the societal costs and benefits of the transition.

TA-SWISS’s chapter on Switzerland spotlights, among other things, the revived debate over nuclear power as a potential climate-friendly option — a question the foundation is also investigating through an ongoing interdisciplinary study on the opportunities and risks of novel nuclear technologies.

What does co-design for tackling complex challenges look like in practice?

Co-design is a collective way of navigating complexity, taking different forms depending on context. The following six elements are a reflection on patterns I’ve seen emerge through practice, especially in settings where multiple perspectives matter.