Co-Creating Transdisciplinary Research and Learning for Transformative Socio-Environmental Change

Transformative change is necessary for ensuring human well-being while addressing climate change and increasing biodiversity loss. Integrating knowledge is key for dealing with many complex socio-environmental challenges such as mitigating and adapting to climate change, transitioning to a circular economy, and tackling biodiversity loss and environmental degradation. However, for many of these challenges that the sustainable development goals (SDGs) attempts to face, scientific perspectives alone are insufficient:

“The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.” - UNDP (https://www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals)

Societal knowledge is needed to understand and define problems, identify alternatives, evaluate strategies, and design and implement processes. Transdisciplinary collaborations, collaborations that combine diverse societal and scientific knowledge, perspectives and values, provide opportunities to unpack the complexities of the environmental challenges the planet faces.

A variety of cases and good practices of transdisciplinary collaborations are available. For example, multistakeholder issue networks focus on the societal or environmental issues at stake as a benchmark for ascertaining which collaborators to engage with, and consequently, the requisite knowledge essential for addressing the matter. Another approach of learning communities are seen as formal or informal networks in which partners from diverse backgrounds learn, work and innovate together, which ultimately leads to the co-creation of transdisciplinary and transformative knowledge. In such contexts, higher education institutions can bridge the gap between different societal, and foster transdisciplinary learning processes, including the development of competencies and skills that are relevant in tackling societal issues.

Nonetheless, when, how, with whom, and even why we should integrate knowledge to address environmental challenges are not always clear. What are lessons learned from previous environmentally-focused transdisciplinary projects? What are the challenges or possibilities with inter- and transdisciplinary processes (setting up, implementation, evaluation, reflection, continuation and sustainability) for improving biodiversity, environmental justice, and achieving Sustainable Development Goals? These are a few of the questions that emerge when involving diverse types of knowledge and pursuing integration to produce societal impact.

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