Integrating transdisciplinary approaches meaningfully into research, climate, and innovation policies is not new but has gained urgency in today’s crisis-ridden context. Addressing complex social, cultural, political, economic, and health challenges requires us to work differently, collaboratively, and embrace transdisciplinary research across all disciplines. In this talk, I analyze knowledge co-production within a large European-funded project focused on modelling net-zero sustainability goals. Although transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly promoted in modelling, their application remains unclear, risking the term becoming a buzzword. By leading an integration process, my team and I examined transdisciplinary principles from the scientific literature and expanded them through fieldwork. These principles provide guidance on designing, implementing, and achieving integrated outputs in large modelling projects. I will present a novel transdisciplinary design process tailored to deliver actionable energy policy outputs and conclude by reflecting on overcoming key tensions in transdisciplinary research within large projects.

ZOOM
https://msu.zoom.us/j/94209869479
Passcode: 986224

Bianca Vienni-Baptista, holds a PhD in Cultural Studies and a Habilitation (Venia Legendi) on the anthropology of science and technology from ETH Zurich (Switzerland). She is Group leader of Cultural Studies of Science and Technology and lecturer at the Transdisciplinarity Lab (ETH Zurich). Her research focuses on the study of inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge production processes. As a result, she is interested in methods and tools as well as concepts and theories as means of achieving transformative and developmental change. Her research focuses on the specific conditions for inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching and on the production and societal use of knowledge in different countries, including the role of universities and funding organisations. Together with her team, she also implements transdisciplinary research processes for sustainable development, fostering the integration of the humanities and social sciences.

Her latest publications include “Institutionalizing lnterdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity Collaboration across Cultures and Communities” co-edited with Julie Thompson Klein (2022, Routledge); “Foundations of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research: a Reader” (2023, Bristol University Press); and “Interdisciplinary Practices in Higher Education: Teaching, Learning and Collaborating across borders” (2024, Routledge).