By Lisa Andrews, Bárbara Willaarts, Andreas Panagopoulos, Radhika Kanade, Nelson Odume, Bodil Ankjær Nielsen and Ingrīda Brēmere.
Are there similar challenges, responsibilities, and methods in transdisciplinarity across countries, scales, contexts and actor types?
In exploring five transdisciplinary case studies from projects on the topics of the water-energy-food-environment nexus and climate change adaptation, we identified three main lessons learned. These were common across the cases from South Africa, India, Greece, Latvia and Denmark, despite their different contexts, types of actors and project structures. These lessons were shared in a workshop at the 2024 Sustainability, Research and Innovation (SRI) Congress in Finland.
Lesson #1 Trust and relationship-building are essential
Trust is a pivotal factor in enabling collaboration across different kinds of actors. Those leading transdisciplinary approaches must show respect and value all actors, which can be done through relationship-building activities, but also by actively listening and ensuring their opinions are being taken seriously within the project. Building trust and relationships early on supports a fruitful collaboration for the long-term and may lead to new project ideas and implementation of practical outcomes. This lesson is also linked to Lesson #2, as “using” stakeholders or actors for their data or validation of solutions (extractive research or one-way relationship) should be avoided at all costs. Otherwise, trust can quickly disintegrate and lead to ineffective projects and outcomes.
Lesson #2: Fairness and positionality need to be explicit
Considerations about fairness need to be made explicit at the beginning and throughout a transdisciplinary project. This means ensuring that all knowledge types are valued in a collaborative process, avoiding extractive research as much as possible. There can sometimes be power imbalances across transdisciplinary project actors, and this needs to be addressed to ensure all voices can be heard. This requires project actors to reflect on their own positionality, perceptions and background, which in turn requires time and specific skills. If the time is available, project actors may wish to participate in such grounding activities early on in projects to create an even playing field, build trust and promote collaboration across disciplines.
Lesson #3: Reaching stakeholders where they are
Involving actors such as regional authorities and policy-makers may help to ensure that knowledge is taken up beyond project timelines and supports solving the societal challenges the project aims to contribute to. However, it can take time and effort to ensure that these particular stakeholders are brought along on the journey. First, information must be tailored to their needs and levels of understanding of the topic to enable co-creation and transfer. It is essential to start with such actors “where they are” and to find ways to reach them that might not be within the usual framework of workshops or meetings, but rather gathering their insights and ideas through phone calls, one-on-one meetings or visiting their offices. It is also important to update them in a timely manner to keep them engaged and interested, as well as to reflect on how the messages you want to share fit into their current agendas and areas of interest.
Conclusions
Transdisciplinary collaboration across disciplines and sectors is no simple task and reflecting on these lessons reminds us that we require empathetic, adaptive and flexible approaches to transdisciplinary research and practice, underpinned by an open and supportive project setting. This can happen within the framework of some project structures, but often it is challenging to engage stakeholders and actors effectively within research project timelines.
Do these three sets of lessons resonate with you? Are there other key lessons that you would draw from your work?
Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Generative artificial intelligence was not used in the development of this i2Insights contribution. (For i2Insights policy on generative artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence).
Lisa Andrews is a PhD candidate, currently working at KWR Water Research Institute in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, and is conducting her PhD in affiliation at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on how transdisciplinary research projects can enable impact in the fields of water and climate. This i2Insights contribution is based on her involvement in the project “Turning climate commitments into action” (IMPETUS) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Bárbara Willaarts PhD is currently Scientific Project Manager and research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Her research covers various topics relevant to water and food governance and sustainability transitions. This i2Insights contribution is based on her involvement in the projects “Managing Resilient Nexus Systems Through Participatory Systems Dynamics Modelling” (REXUS) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, “fairSTREAM” (where researchers aim to understand and reconcile issues of fairness, a key aspect for managing risks in food-water-biodiversity nexus) funded by IIASA, and “SDG (Sustainable Development Goals)-Pathfinding: Co-Creating Pathways for Sustainable Development in Africa” (SDG-Pathfinding) funded by the Belmont Forum.
Andreas Panagopoulos PhD is a research director at Hellenic Agricultural Organisation Soil and Water Resources Institute based in Thessaloniki, Greece. His research interests include water resources management, monitoring of their quality and quantity, groundwater flow and pollution transport modelling, synthesis of nexus management policies through participatory approaches, hydrogeology, and climate change impacts on groundwater systems. This i2insights contribution is based on his involvement in the project “Managing Resilient Nexus Systems Through Participatory Systems Dynamics Modelling” (REXUS) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Radhika Kanade PhD is a post-doctoral researcher at the Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) in Pune, India. Her main research interests include forest ecology and biodiversity, community governance and management of natural resources, and human dimensions of environmental change such as landcover change. This i2insights contribution is based on her involvement in the “fairSTREAM” project (where researchers aim to understand and reconcile issues of fairness, a key aspect for managing risks in food-water-biodiversity nexus) funded by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
Nelson Odume PhD is currently a professor at Rhodes University and Director of the Institute for Water Research in Grahamstown, South Africa. His areas of interest include water resources, particularly in aquatic ecology, freshwater ecosystem health, water quality, pollution studies, water governance, biomonitoring, integrated water resource management and ethics, and transdisciplinary water science. He has led several collaborative, large transdisciplinary research projects. This i2insights contribution is based on his involvement in the “SDG (Sustainable Development Goals)-Pathfinding: Co-Creating Pathways for Sustainable Development in Africa” (SDG-Pathfinding) funded by the Belmont Forum.
Bodil Ankjær Nielsen is currently the Climate Adaptation Coordinator at Esbjerg Kommune in Denmark. She aims to prepare the city for climate change impacts, predominantly related to too much or too little water. This i2Insights contribution is based on her involvement in the project “Climate-resilient regions through systemic solutions and innovations” (ARSINOE) funded by the European Union’s Horizon H2020 innovation action programme.
Ingrīda Brēmere MSc is a project manager and environmental expert from the Baltic Environmental Forum in Riga, Latvia. There, she works on climate change mitigation and adaptation; urban environment, water management, stakeholder participation. This i2Insights contribution is based on her involvement in the project “Turning climate commitments into action” (IMPETUS) funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.