News der Community

Peer-reviewed articles focus on links between rural outmigration and land use change in Argentina, a tool to support land use decisions in Ethiopia, adaptive strategies of small ski areas in Japan, and participatory digital mapping and local learning in Nepal. In the MountainPlatform section, UNIMONT showcases its work on plant agrobiodiversity, and GLOMOS presents its systemic research approach. The issue also contains book reviews and a MountainViews article that calls for monitoring of micro-endemics.

Zwei Mitglieder des Komitees "Einheit der Wissenschaften und ein echtes Studium generale" haben einen Gastkommentar für die NZZ verfasst, in dem sie für die Einführung eines echten Studium generale und Transdisziplinarität als Vereiner der Wissenschaften argumentieren.

Growing Sustainability in the Arts eröffnet vielfältige Perspektiven auf Nachhaltigkeit in den Künsten und im Design. Die Plattform der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK) versammelt Projekte aus Lehre, Forschung und Transfer – von Abschlussarbeiten über Lehrformate bis hin zu Forschungsprojekten und Veranstaltungen. Ergänzt wird sie durch Informationen zu Fördermöglichkeiten sowie ein Glossar zentraler Begriffe rund um Nachhaltigkeit in den Künsten und im Design.

Ein Ort zum Entdecken, Vernetzen und Weiterdenken – und eine Einladung, Nachhaltigkeit als kreative, kritische und gestaltende Praxis neu zu denken.

Engaged UniBE, the University of Bern's initiative for transdisciplinary research and societal engagement, has launched a new LinkedIn channel. We share project stories, insights into transdisciplinary methods, and news from our growing community of researchers, students, and practice partners working together on sustainability and climate action. Follow us here

How can teams develop a mindset that makes differences productive, such as disciplinary differences in work processes, communication styles, underlying assumptions, behavioral norms, and more? In particular, how can teams move from an either/or mindset, which often leads to defensiveness driven by the need to prove that “I am right; you are wrong” to a both/and mindset, which fosters a learning culture in which differences become sources of generative tension that can propel creativity and collective insight?

Wie gelingt Interdisziplinarität? Unser Anliegen ist es, einen Beitrag dazu zu leisten, interdisziplinäre Forschung und deren Management weiterzuentwickeln. Damit beschäftigen wir uns aus verschiedenen Perspektiven: Management, Forschung, Weiterbildung und Netzwerken. Die neue Webseite des Büros fpr Forschungsverbundmanagement ist online.

The purpose of this research is to study, understand, codify, and promote entrepreneurial ecosystems and revenue models for sustainable livelihood generation, around temples as cultural and spiritual centres. In the ancient India, till the onset of colonial rule, all the rulers leveraged temples for social harmony, establishing and practicing Sanatana dharma, and holding together the social fabric and economic sustenance of the local communities. Each temple supported direct and indirect employment/ livelihood opportunities for the locals. The revenue was generated by the donations/ offerings of the devotees as well as the agricultural lands bequeathed to the temple by the kings. This ensured that all the trades and crafts were integrated and linked to the temple practices, processes, and rituals ensuring a steady livelihood of the people. Even the performing artists were part of the temple staff, offering their performances as a prayer as well as a source of entertainment to the visitors, ensuring a sustainable livelihood and preservation of art forms.

The new report “Beyond the transaction” reviews the scientific evidence on the links between commodity trade and sustainable development. This report and a summary factsheet explore the role of Switzerland as a major hub of global commodity trade. They examine the growing influence of trading houses across value chains and the increasing role of financial actors and instruments for the sector, the limitations of current sustainability regulations, and the implications of rising geopolitical tensions.

Being aware that knowledge is always situational, incomplete, and prone to error, as well as the willingness to hold opinions tentatively, be receptive to change, and recognise the boundaries of understanding, are all components of epistemic humility. Humility about what one knows and can know is an intellectual quality in individual researchers. Yet epistemic humility also has a structural dimension: which doubts get expressed, whose knowledge is heard, and how teams handle what they don’t yet know, are challenges that go beyond the individual researcher to shape how research teams function.

Die Schweizersiche Akademische Gesellschaf für Umweltforschung und Ökologie (saguf) hat die zweite Folge ihres Podcasts, diesmal mit Caroline Wiedmer und Christoph Küffer sowie eine kurze Videoserie zum Thema "Wirkung an der Schnittstelle: Wie die junge Generation die Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaft bewegt" veröffentlicht.

This video features Stephen Crowley from Boise State University, Idaho, USA and Christian Pohl from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. In the webinar “(i2)Insights on Integration Frameworks” they review what it means to integrate knowledge and how to better facilitate that integration. Stephen Crowley approaches the topic as a philosopher, reviewing the IPO (Inputs-Process-Output) model and more recent work by Bethany Laursen on integration typologies. Christian Pohl approaches the topic from the pragmatic basis of integration in research, including PhD research, outlining the many ways in which integration can occur and how to help PhD students reflect on it effectively.

Im Rahmen des Quality & Rigour-Projekts wurde eine Umfrage zu Kriterien, Indikatoren und Dimensionen zur Bewertung der Angemessenheit, Robustheit, wissenschaftlichen Strenge und Wirksamkeit von inter- und transdisziplinären (ITD) Methoden entwickelt. Das Projekt ist Teil der Working Group Toolkits & Methods der ITD Alliance, einem internationalen Netzwerk zur Förderung von inter- und transdisziplinärer Forschung. Mehr Informationen finden Sie auf unserer Website.

Die Umfrage baut auf den Rigour Discussion Sessions auf – einem Format, das innerhalb der ITD Alliance Fragen der Strenge und Qualität von ITD-Methoden diskutiert. Ziel ist es zu verstehen, ob die dokumentierten Kriterien in der ITD-Community Resonanz finden und wie sie in der Praxis angewendet werden. Die Ergebnisse werden zur Weiterentwicklung der Kriterien genutzt und in einer einschlägigen Fachzeitschrift veröffentlicht.

Das Ausfüllen der Umfrage dauert ca. 20 Minuten und ist bis 6. Juli möglich.

How do contextual factors influence the effects of transdisciplinary research projects? How can assessment of transdisciplinary research move from only considering outcome effectiveness to understanding the reasons behind how and why something works?

The TD Training Collaboratory funded in 2021 by the US National Science Foundation brings together pioneering researchers and trainers from regional centers across the globe. Drawing upon their collective experience, the group developed the guide, and pilot tested its use at various conferences and institutes. This comprehensive resource enables university faculty, trainers, and curriculum planners to create engaging transdisciplinary research courses and workshops. The Spanish translation makes this valuable resource accessible to a broader community of educators and researchers working to advance transdisciplinary collaboration.

How are biodiversity and ecosystem services evolving today and in the future, and how can this evolution be influenced? These were the questions addressed by the ValPar.CH research project.

The ValPar.CH Practice Navigator now provides a digital platform that makes research findings accessible from a practical perspective. The Practice Navigator demonstrates how the research team’s findings and recommendations can be implemented—in the areas of planning, governance, and communication, and at the federal, cantonal, regional, and municipal levels. The research background is supported by specific use cases or existing practical examples. Practice-relevant entry questions allow for quick access to the summarized research content. Keywords and additional filters enable targeted information searches. The original scientific publications are also listed, so that users have access to the original sources at any time. Where questions remain unanswered, contact information for the responsible researchers is provided.

The FOEN publication “The Many Values of Nature” (available in German and French) provides a summary overview of the research findings and key recommendations.

This series is the first dedicated platform that examines interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity not merely as research strategies, but as evolving fields of scholarship requiring systematic, theoretically grounded, and methodologically robust investigation. It emerges at a strategic moment in global research policy. Mission driven science, integration mandates from funding agencies, and cross sectoral collaborations have increased the demand for robust theory and comparative insights into integration, co-production, transformative research and collaborative governance. Yet, practices of inter- and transdisciplinary research remain frequently fragmented across disciplines and national contexts.

How can universities develop effective processes to embed inter- and transdisciplinary (ITD) approaches in teaching and research? This question sits at the heart of the PATHWAYS project, led by Bianca Vienni Baptista and Madalina Müntz at the Cultural Studies of Science and Technology Group, Transdisciplinarity Lab, ETH Zürich, Switzerland.

Taking the University of Strasbourg as a case study, PATHWAYS follows the trajectories of its 15 Interdisciplinary Thematic Institutes (ITIs). These institutes bring together researchers, lecturers, and external partners across three thematic areas, forming a living landscape of interdisciplinary experimentation. The project explores how ITD is interpreted, organised, and enacted across different settings within the university, and how it takes shape in everyday practices.

In doing so, PATHWAYS seeks to surface the environments and dynamics that accompany ITD efforts at the university level. The findings will feed into ongoing discussions on the institutionalisation and governance of ITD, while contributing to wider reflections on how universities can support, organise, and recognise ITD research and training.

Those interested in learning more about the project are warmly invited to get in touch with Madalina.

Think of a time when you noticed how different ‘they’ are from ‘us’. In that moment, did the relationship become more interesting and alive? Or did it flatten into what looked like a boundary – a barrier to be overcome or a connection to be engineered?

How can a student and their supervisors develop a shared map for a PhD project when they come from different disciplinary traditions, hold different assumptions about knowledge and quality, and operate within institutional systems that are still largely structured around single disciplines? How can they navigate what may feel obvious to one and may be invisible to another?

Four new contributions to the i2insghts can be found below:

• 613. Developing a conceptual framework to support communication, collaboration and integration by Hanna Salomon, Jialin Zhang and Sabine Hoffmann

• 612. The Cultiv8 tool Part 2: Actionable insights for navigating power by Sobia Khan and Julia Moore

• 611. The Cultiv8 tool Part 1: Actionable insights for cultivating trust by Julia Moore and Sobia Khan

• 610. From slogan to practice: Restoring transdisciplinarity as a serious way of working by Hussein Zeidan