Sustainability Research Effectiveness Joins Forces for Change in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Gothenburg, SE

How do we capture and strengthen the societal effects of research? Our team’s session aimed to tackle this question at the 2019 International Transdisciplinarity Conference (ITD) in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference brought together academics, practitioners, policy-makers, and research funders to learn from collaborative experiences, case studies, and shared practices. Rachel Claus represented the team, presenting results from a comparative analysis of seven project evaluations. Our study applied a comprehensive theory-based evaluation methodology to assess projects’ outcomes. Paired with the project evaluation, we employed the Transdisciplinary Research Quality Assessment Framework to evaluate projects’ design.

Our findings demonstrate that transdisciplinary qualities influence outcome realization. Moreover, the more transdisciplinary a project is, the more pathways to influence it can leverage. Hence, transdisciplinary research can be more effective to achieve social change and address complex social challenges. Yet, findings also demonstrated that traditional disciplinary research projects can still integrate transdisciplinary qualities into design that support outcomes. We enjoyed the opportunity to network with like-minded academics and learn from others’ research.

Learn more about the ITD Conference and our program’s contributions in 2019. Read more news posts from the Sustainability Research Effectiveness Program.