Processes

Six elements of effective co-design

By Will Allen.

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Will Allen (biography)

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.

1. Starting with shared grounding: Creating early alignment through shared values, context, and purpose

In many collaborative projects, there’s a tendency to begin by defining tasks – what needs doing, by whom, and when. But in complex settings, where multiple perspectives and values come into play, it’s often more important to begin with relationships. It helps to understand where people are coming from, what matters to them, and how they see the purpose.

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Lessons for transformative research from co-creating a conference without a fixed plan

By Thomas Bruhn.

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Thomas Bruhn (biography)

In developing a conference, what does it take for people to leave their comfort zones to co-design something new? What possibilities does this open up for more meaningful conference designs? What are the broader lessons for transformative research?

In 2023–2024, I worked with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop a conference format for the German sustainability research community – something to help re-establish connection after the isolating COVID pandemic years, and to strengthen interdisciplinary exchange. The Ministry wanted something new and innovative.

Early in the conversation, I sensed hesitation when unconventional, interactive conference formats were suggested.

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Six tips for using research to influence policy

By David R. Garcia.

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David R. Garcia (biography)

How can academics, researchers, and educators become skilled at the craft of engaging with policy makers? Who should they aim to engage with and what are some key factors in engaging effectively? 

Based on my experiences as a US legislative staffer, state policy director, statewide political candidate and professor, here are my six best tips.

Tip #1: Be prepared to work with politicians. Yes, politicians

In academic contexts, “policymaker” is an ill-defined term that is often applied to all policy actors, and does not account for relevant distinctions between different policy actors.

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Data variety and why it matters

By Richard Berry.

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Richard Berry (biography)

What are the differing characteristics of data? Why are they important for systems to function effectively? What is requisite variety of data?

There are nine characteristics of data variety which agitate systems. These are volume, velocity, variety, veracity, validity, vulnerability, viscosity, vectors and virtualisation. Together, the ‘9Vs’ constitute a data requisite variety framework and are described below. 

1. Volume

Description: The amounts of available data.

Example: Volume can vary widely from the results of small-scale research to the tsunami of digital material accessible through the internet. The latter can overwhelm both people and organisations.

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Considering context in transdisciplinary research: A framework and reflective questions

By Nina Maria Frölich and Annika Weiser.

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1. Nina Maria Frölich (biography)
2. Annika Weiser (biography)

Which contextual factors affect the design, processes, methods and outcomes of transdisciplinary research projects? How can they best be considered by teams designing transdisciplinary research?

Most would agree that context matters, especially in transdisciplinary approaches. But how can we make it work for us in designing impactful context-sensitive transdisciplinary research? Here we provide a useful framework that structures the various aspects of “context,” here understood as a combination of circumstances that interact with and influence a transdisciplinary research project. Based on theoretical literature, as well as an analysis of 17 semi-structured interviews about international transdisciplinary research projects (Tolksdorf et al., 2025), we identified three dimensions, with a total of nine key context factors, illustrated in the figure below.

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Three social mechanisms leading to fake interdisciplinary collaborations / 形成伪跨学科合作的三种社会形成机制

By Lianghao Dai.

A Chinese version of this post is available

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Lianghao Dai (biography)

What are fake interdisciplinary collaborations and how do they arise?

Fake interdisciplinary collaborations are a form of performative scientific behaviour that claims to be interdisciplinary but lacks knowledge integration across disciplines. There are three social mechanisms that can result in such fake collaborations.

1. Irresponsible project management

Irresponsible project management has two manifestations:

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Building co-production capabilities in researchers: Strengthening reflexivity via learning opportunities

By Emma Ligtermoet, Claudia Munera-Roldan, Cathy Robinson, Zaynel Sushil and Peat Leith.

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1. Emma Ligtermoet; 2. Claudia Munera-Roldan; 3. Cathy Robinson; 4. Zaynel Sushil; 5. Peat Leith (biographies)

What forms of learning can support interdisciplinary teams to rapidly build reflexivity capabilities, especially in preparation for doing transdisciplinary (engaged) science with non-researcher societal actors?

Transdisciplinary co-production requires deep and reflexive learning. Reflexivity is a key capability for researchers doing inter- and transdisciplinary science, involving the critical enquiry of existing assumptions, values and norms underlying our decisions and actions, with the aim to adapt or change current practices or discourses.

Such learning is foundational for understanding and proactively engaging with knowledge-power dynamics, including potentially catalysing shifts in incumbent dynamics when preparing to engage with non-societal actors.

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Seven quality choice points for contemporary action research

By Hilary Bradbury.

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Hilary Bradbury (biography)

How can action researchers empower system actors in impactfully responding to our deepening eco-social crisis? How can action research be a catalyst to successfully transmute the inexhaustible resource of human creativity in all spaces—self to society—toward addressing our global problems? How can we encourage deepening clarity of choices made to navigate a middle path between responding to problems within living communities and contributing to research-based theory?

Mitigating the worst of our global problems requires action research that draws on many kinds and sources of knowledge. In fact, it requires drawing much more from diverse people on the ground, who understand the problems at hand and can offer solutions anchored in their experience of what is meaningful for them.

The aim of the seven choice points described below is to support action researchers in:

  • deepening and speeding up the proliferation of good work,
  • connecting local niche experiments to global reach.

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Combining subjectivity and objectivity in systems thinking: The SOS sandwich

By James Stauch and Daniela Papi-Thornton.

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1. James Stauch (biography)
2. Daniela Papi-Thornton (biography)

In seeking to understand, map, and then act to intervene in a system, how can we make the best use of both subjectivity and objectivity? How can we effectively toggle between facts and norms, between what is true (or at least broadly verifiable) and what is valued (or valuable)?

In the book that this i2Insights contribution is based on (Stauch et al., 2025), the case is made for people to spend far more time understanding a problem, and proportionally less time acting to “solve” the problem. To help frame this approach, the SOS (subjective-objective-subjective) sandwich is used as a simple heuristic to show where subjectivity and objectivity can be taken into account when dealing with a system.

In this work, objectivity is considered as a vector, not a destination, with true objectivity always out of reach, as we can never be completely objective in our approach to research. That said, we can strive for it by recognizing our biases and seeking diverse viewpoints.

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Key leadership practices in transdisciplinary projects

By Susanne C. Moser.

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Susanne C. Moser (biography)

When training transdisciplinarians, which leadership skills and practices is it helpful to encourage? 

The kind of leadership that someone brings to a transdisciplinary project has decisive implications for how a project unfolds and for its likelihood of success. Conventional thinking about leadership often hinges on unspoken assumptions about hierarchies, power, and the significance and impact of a single individual; it also often implies unspoken ideas about inclusion, assignment, or sharing of rights and responsibilities, and those to praise or blame for any outcomes. At the same time, transdisciplinary research encourages practices that flatten hierarchies; challenge power; promote diversification and inclusion of different disciplines, expertise, and ways of knowing; and question traditional research processes.

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Principles for place-based community participation

By James A. Turner.

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James A. Turner (biography)

How can a community’s sense of connection and responsibility to care for their place be strengthened? How can this lead to ground-up change, driven by communities, to tackle complex social, economic, and environmental issues? How can such change draw on the deep sense of care and belonging people feel for their communities and environments to tailor solutions to the unique needs and context of a place?

We identified eleven key principles associated with successful place-based community-led projects. These are the first principles to be developed in-country, rather than being imported from overseas and, because these are place-based, they are specific to Aotearoa New Zealand. We share them here to illustrate what specific place-based principles look like.

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A framework for creating effective team integration in interdisciplinary research

By Colleen Cuddy.

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Colleen Cuddy (biography)

What kinds of integration are required in interdisciplinary teams to truly synthesize diverse knowledge and perspectives, creating meaningful outcomes? What are the key facilitators of successful integration?

Integration is a core team process in which “ideas, data and information, methods, tools, concepts, and/or theories … are synthesized, connected, or blended” (Repko, 2012: 4), combining diverse inputs that differ from and are more than the sum of parts (National Research Council, 2015). Integration is multifaceted, and interdisciplinary teams employ several types of integration, as shown in the table below. Social, knowledge, cognitive, and conceptual integration can be seen as a spectrum, with teams utilizing multiple types of integration, often concurrently, to reach team goals, and with innovative teams moving through the spectrum towards conceptual integration.

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