Project: Strengthening the practice of transdisciplinary research

Project Head: Matthias Bergmann Co-operation: Institut für Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung (IWT), Universität Bielefeld td-net, Schweizerische Akademie der Naturwissenschaften Monitoring Group Monitoring Group Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research funding programme Social-Ecological Research Duration: 10/2006 - 09/2008   Field of research   about the Institute

Transdisciplinary research teams often face the problem of having only a limited knowledge of tested methods, procedures and modes of operation for transdisciplinary research and its quality control. The reason for this is not a lack of information about given research fields; rather, the problem lies in the lack of an established tradition and of appropriate synopses, in which tested methods and procedures are collected in such a manner that permits their transfer to the widest possible range of transdisciplinary areas of application. In addition, invitations to guide and monitor research projects and their conceptual planning and evaluation are also too few. The project “Strengthening the Practice of Transdisciplinary Research” aims to support the conception, implementation and quality control of transdisciplinary research designs by putting together a comprehensive overview of theories and concepts, research strategies and instruments relevant to the practice of transdisciplinary research. Dealing with uncertainty and lack of knowledge Complex societal problems are becoming more and more marked by uncertainty and lack of knowledge, leading to pressure being put on science and research by politicians, NGO organizations and consumers to remedy this situation. However, these complex problems are often not accessible to science because they lie between the borders separating the different scientific disciplines with their individual methods. Moreover, both research goals and research designs are increasingly preformed by societal discourses marked by power relations, majority pressures and mechanisms of exclusion, so that a distinction between so-called objective research briefs and societal interests is difficult if not impossible. The transdisciplinary approach to research attempts to acknowledge this situation by recognizing that research processes, with respect to both the description of the problems to be researched as well as the solutions proposed to these, are confronted from the outset with societal values and discipline related norms. As a result, the transdisciplinary approach is faced with a formidable challenge: the cognitive integration of research processes in which knowledge being produced at several different levels must be fused, while at the same time heterogeneously organized research teams must be made fit for cooperation socially, communicatively and organizationally. In order to be able to deal practically (and successfully) with this complex research situation, transdisciplinary research processes must be planned, structured and carried out, using clear methods and work practices, in such a way that well ordered, integrated and goal-oriented research results can be expected. This will enable the provision of, on the one hand, strategies for solving the practical problems under investigation which are capable of being implemented and, on the other, scientifically acceptable new knowledge. Continuity and the building of a research tradition Although there is already a vital ongoing practice of transdisciplinary research, this practice is confronted with a severe difficulty : continuity, and the building of a research tradition, takes place at best only at the level of individual institutions and not within a transdisciplinary community, one possibly ordered in a manner similar to the scientific disciplines. This is so because the complex practice of transdisciplinary research is dependent on individual, context and time bound research projects, in which new theoretical concepts and integrative instruments must be developed or existing ones must be adapted. Research is dispersed into project bound, topic and problem related episodes. Therefore, there are no resources left over to gather and communicate the rich experience won through the practice of transdisciplinary research, thereby ensuring the preservation and availability of this experience. Adaption capable knowledge for scientific practice There is, to be sure, a quite useful pool of experience to be found within transdisciplinary research with respect to methods, instruments and work modes. However, this lies unexplored, since it is dispersed across the disciplines and has not yet been made usable. Therefore, the project aims at a substantial broadening of the state of knowledge concerning proven research strategies and instruments, in order to avoid the repeated development of already existing research designs or the development of mistaken ideas of how to design research. Only on the basis of such a synopsis of transdisciplinary methods and procedures can the work of brokering such knowledge begin, with the aim of enabling scientists to gain from the experience won in completed or still running transdisciplinary research projects. In this way the building of a tradition within this special form of scientific practice can also be strengthened. An important prerequisite for a vital, dynamic process of building a tradition within practice of transdisciplinary research is that knowledge be so prepared that it is capable of adaption, so that it can always be enriched by the input of new experience. Monitoring Group Ingrid Balzer GSF - Forschungszentrum für Umwelt und Gesundheit GmbH Dr. Karolina Begusch-Pfefferkorn Österreichisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung Programm proVISION Programmleitung und Koordination Dr. Paul Bergweiler DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. Umwelt, Kultur, Nachhaltigkeit Dr. Hans-Luidger Dienel Technische Universität Berlin Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft Prof. Dr. Getrude Hirsch Hadorn ETH Zürich Departement Umweltwissenschaften Prof. Dr. Gerd Michelsen Leuphana Universität Lüneburg Institut für Umweltkommunikation Dr. Monika Wächter DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. Umwelt, Kultur, Nachhaltigkeit Prof. Dr. Gabriele Wendorf Institut für Stadt- und Regionalplanung TU Berlin , Vizepräsidentin