Negotiation – Integration and Implementation Insights

Four negotiation areas at junctions between context, format and methods in transdisciplinary research

October 13, 2026

By Nina Maria Frölich and Melanie Mbah.

authors_nina-maria-frolich_melanie-mbah — 1. Nina Maria Frölich (biography)
2. Melanie Mbah (biography)

How can transdisciplinary researchers bring together context, format and methods in a way that recognises their interdependence and their dynamic nature?

Much existing guidance on transdisciplinary research treats context as one design task, and the choice of format and methods as another, separate task. However it is more realistic to see them as interdependent, and that the relationship between them keeps shifting throughout a project.

By context we mean the organisational, political, socio-economic, socio-ecological, cultural, hierarchical, spatial, and temporal structures that frame a transdisciplinary project, as well as the team dynamics and types of knowledge involved.

By format we mean the overall structure that carries a project through its phases, from framing the problem together, through generating new knowledge, to feeding results back into practice―for example a real-world laboratory, a Theory of Change process, an arts-based approach or a step-by-step guide.

Dealing with differences in interests through principled negotiation

February 6, 2026November 15, 2022

By Gabriele Bammer

gabriele-bammer_nov-2021 — Gabriele Bammer (biography)

How can the interests of a diverse group of researchers and stakeholders tackling a complex societal problem be understood and managed?

Interests arise when a person has a stake in something and stands to gain or lose depending on what happens to that something:

researchers commonly have a stake in advancing their work and careers,
stakeholders affected by a societal problem generally have a stake in improving the problem, and
stakeholders in a position to do something about a problem generally have a stake in improving outcomes for the problem through their sphere of influence.

Interests relate not only to personal conditions or stakes (self-interest), but also to principles such as reducing inequities and promoting justice.

Resolving disagreements by negotiating agreements in the right way

September 2, 2025September 27, 2022

By Lawrence Susskind

How can interdisciplinary teams avoid getting stuck on questions like:

What kinds of data do we need to collect?
What methods or techniques should we use to analyze our data?
How should we handle gaps or incongruities in our findings?
What are the policy implications or prescriptions that follow from our findings?

I want to share some lessons I’ve learned about handling disagreements on these four questions.

Research Design

One interdisciplinary project I worked on many years ago involved trying to assess the feasibility of burying nuclear waste in the ocean floor.

Knowledge asymmetry in interdisciplinary collaborations and how to reduce it

January 21, 2026February 26, 2019

By Max Kemman

How can tasks and goals among partners in a collaboration be effectively negotiated, especially when one party is dependent on the deliverables of another party? How does knowledge asymmetry affect such negotiations? What is knowledge asymmetry anyway and how can it be dealt with?

What is knowledge asymmetry?

My PhD research involves historians who are dependent on computational experts to develop an algorithm or user interface for historical research. They therefore needed to be aware of what the computational experts were doing.

Negotiations and ‘normative’ or ‘ethical’ power

January 3, 2022June 26, 2018

By Lena Partzsch

What can we learn from international relations about how ‘normative’ or ‘ethical’ power can be used in successful negotiations, for example, for pathways to sustainability? Here I build on Ian Manners’ (2002) concept of “Normative Power Europe”. He argues that the European Union’s specific history “pre‐disposes it to act in a normative way” (Manners 2002: 242) based on norms such as democracy, rule of law, social justice and respect for human rights. I explore the broader ramifications of the normative power concept for empirical studies and for practical negotiation and collaboration more generally.

First, the concept of normative power implies that the spread of particular norms is perceived as a principal policy goal, whether that relates to foreign policy, environmental policy or other kinds of policy.

Ten communication tips for translational scientists

January 3, 2022July 19, 2016

By Sunshine Menezes

As someone who works with scientists, journalists, advocates, regulators, and other types of communication practitioners, I see the need for translational scientists who can navigate productive, start-to-finish collaborations between such groups on a daily basis.

This translation involves the use of new, more integrated approaches toward scientific work to confront wicked environmental problems society faces.

In spite of this need, cross-boundary communication poses a major stumbling block for many researchers. Science communication requires engagement with potential beneficiaries, not just a one-way transfer of information.