Transform your disciplinary practices with a roadmap for effective coordination
Why do some transdisciplinary projects achieve real transformation while others remain mere good intentions? The answer often lies in an invisible but decisive factor: coordination. Although it tends to take a back seat, coordinating diverse efforts is key to making knowledge co-production work. That is why the IAI Transdisciplinary Academy, together with the Belmont Forum, the Global Development Network (GDN), and Inclusive Innovation, and with the support of the US National Science Foundation (NSF), led an initiative to identify what is needed to coordinate successfully. The result is a new report that is essential reading for those working in transdisciplinary science seeking real impact.
In the publication “Transdisciplinary Coordination: Building Bridges for the Future of Knowledge Co-production,” institutions, governments, and projects seeking to improve their transdisciplinary practices can learn about concrete steps to change culture, transform funding, and build capacity, using a practical roadmap to strengthen their coordination work. The report also provides a set of training resources, networking strategies, and assessment tools.
Transdisciplinary coordination encompasses all non-academic processes that enable collaboration, including the participation of diverse social actors, facilitating the interface between science and policy, communicating with a broad audience, fostering institutional partnerships, and jointly developing evaluation protocols.