i2S projects aim to:
- continue to build and improve the i2S theoretical framework
- curate and share tools (concepts, methods, processes, etc) for addressing—in teaching and research—complex societal and environmental problems
- strengthen the community of educators and researchers tackling complex societal and environmental problems by:
- fostering a truly global approach that recognises and values contributions from all countries
- building bridges among related approaches, such as interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, systemic intervention, action research, complex systems science, implementation science, participatory system dynamics, etc.
- foster networks and alliances to increase the influence of i2S and its component approaches on research funding, as well as education and research policy.
Information about two current projects and multiple activities is provided, followed by an historical overview of projects, as follows:
1. Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights)
The main i2S project is curating Integration and Implementation Insights (i2Insights), which is a living, interactive guide to concepts, methods, processes and other tools for understanding and acting on complex societal and environmental problems (problems such as global climate change, effective health care and inequalities).
Contributions are published weekly and can be by anyone with relevant expertise and experience. Contributions are in the form of short (500-1000 word) blog posts, which aim to provide a “gold nugget” of information to the reader, in the form of a useful method, process, concept or other tool. Contributions are indexed, making tools on related topics easy to find. Key components of the index are in line with the i2S theoretical framework.
As well as building a toolkit, i2Insights is also building a global community of educators and researchers involved in improving ways of tackling complex real world problems, by facilitating connections across countries, problems tackled and approaches used. Commenting on contributions is encouraged.
Established in late 2015, i2Insights attracts readers from all of the 193 nations that are members of the United Nations. The latest statistics on the number of contributions and authors (both in the hundreds), the countries authors are from (in the dozens) and the number of comments (in the thousands) are available at https://i2insights.org/about/i2insights-statistics/.
Two associated, on-going projects are:
- developing primers to introduce key aspects of i2S. The first two primers cover stakeholder engagement and understanding diversity. There is also a video playlist primer on understanding diversity on the i2S YouTube channel, i2S-Talks.
- improving the comprehensive index of key terms used in the i2Insights contributions, along with definitions of how those terms are used in Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S). This index is pivotal in refining the conceptualisation of i2S.
Also noteworthy is that the index is included on BioPortal, under Integration and Implementation Sciences Vocabulary. BioPortal is “the world’s most comprehensive repository of biomedical ontologies.”
2. Supporting transdisciplinary education and research at the Australian National University (ANU)
ANU is strengthening transdisciplinary research and education, including implementing the graduate attribute “Capability to employ discipline-based knowledge in transdisciplinary problem solving.” This has involved a number of projects, with support continuing.
In particular, three projects involved working groups chaired by Gabriele Bammer, variously leading to reports, guides, peer-reviewed publications and i2Insights contributions, as described below.
1. The ANU Graduate Attributes Working Group on “Capability to Employ Discipline-based Knowledge in Transdisciplinary Problem Solving” produced:
- a peer-reviewed paper titled ‘Setting parameters for developing undergraduate expertise in transdisciplinary problem solving at a university-wide scale: A case study‘
- an i2Insights contribution ‘A framework for building transdisciplinary expertise‘
- a report (Google Drive – PDF 3.4MB), with five appendices (Appendix 1 (Google Drive – PDF 320KB)); (Appendix 2 (Google Drive – PDF 680KB)); (Appendix 3 (Google Drive – PDF 1MB)); (Appendix 4 (Google Drive – PDF 490KB)); (Appendix 5 (Google Drive – PDF 1.1MB)).
2. A working group to strengthen transdisciplinary research in the ANU College of Health and Medicine produced:
During the process of implementation of the recommendations, in 2024 the ANU College of Health and Medicine was disestablished.
3. A working group to develop a library guide to transdisciplinary problem solving produced:
- a library guide available at: https://libguides.anu.edu.au/transdisciplinary-problem-solving
- a peer reviewed publication titled ‘Advancing transdisciplinarity through library–academic collaboration’
- an i2Insights contribution ‘A library guide to support transdisciplinarity.‘
3. Other activities
There are multiple other activities, including:
- curating i2S-Talks, the Integration and Implementation Sciences YouTube channel
- leading an editorial panel for a special article collection on “Expertise in integration and implementation for transformative research” in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (formerly Palgrave Communications): https://www.nature.com/collections/ahbhdghcda
- maintaining an active LinkedIn profile (as Gabriele Bammer), as well as managing the LinkedIn group Global Network for Research Integration and Implementation. The hashtag #i2Sresources connects relevant contributions.
- reporting regularly on the progress of i2S through i2S News.
- supporting the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance) through active involvement in its formation in 2017-2019, serving as inaugural President (starting in 2023), catalysing the founding of regional networks (starting in 2024), being a core participant in the working group on toolkits and methods (2019-2023), participating in other working groups and providing resources compiled between 2002 and 2021 on conferences, journals and professional associations and networks for the ITD-Alliance website.
4. Historical overview
The historical overview provides an account of completed projects. Several projects led to major publications about i2S and are described at: https://i2insights.org/i2s/i2s-publications/. Descriptions of other projects can be accessed through the links below for: