Platform tdAcademy for transdisciplinary research and studies

Although the principle of transdisciplinary research has been successfully applied for several decades, especially in sustainability research, there are so far only a few structures or expert organisations that could ensure the consolidation of its scientific standards. And, it is precisely because of the complex methodological, conceptual, and communicative challenges, that there is a special need for structures and places for the bundling and further development of knowledge about transdisciplinarity and for strengthening the community of those who explore and teach transdisciplinarily and fund such research. The platform tdAcademy closes this gap.

Research approach

The work of the platform tdAcademy takes place in the scope of different thematic lines and modules. These include the generation of new knowledge on how transdisciplinary research can be made particularly effective in scientific and societal terms and the question what kind of influence different research contexts have on processes and results. The evaluation of new formats of transdisciplinary research – such as real-world laboratories – and their effects is another field of investigation. Finally, a guest and fellowship program will be set up to invite renowned and young scientists to the four supporting institutions.

Background

The platform tdAcademy aims to be a constantly evolving knowledge base for transdisciplinary research and a forum for its global community to reflect on existing concepts and methods, discuss the latest findings and develop new ideas. 

In a first step, the newly acquired knowledge  on the four topics of societal effects, scientific effects, contextual dependencies and new formats of transdisciplinary research will be compiled. To this end, reviews will be prepared, transdisciplinary research projects analysed, workshops organised and interviews conducted. Subsequently, the new findings will be discussed, validated, and enriched together with experts from science, society and funding institutions. Furthermore, offers for further education, teaching and the support of project teams will be assembled  and presented online. Transdisciplinary research institutes and especially young researchers shall be supported in this way. Until spring 2021, a German and English online platform will be developed in order to expand the existing online offer from the TransImpact project (www.td-academy.org).

Research and project partners

• Leuphana University Lüneburg
• Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft (ZTG) at Technische Universität Berlin
• Oeko-Institut e.V.
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Funding

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the project as part of the social-ecological research funding priority (funding code: 01UV2070B). The guest and fellowship program within the project is funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung (project no. 01000671-001).