Transdisciplinary Lab for Learning and Research

Building on 30-years of interdisciplinary research, TPM takes on the transdisciplinary challenge

Transdisciplinary learning and research is an interdisciplinary approach to scientific inquiry and education which places an emphasis on joint problem structuring  and solution exploration from multiple knowledge sources and disciplines. Transdisciplinary learning and research brings together educators, researchers, policy makers, diverse societal actors such as communities, industry, youth, and many others to address both scientific and societal challenges. Reflexive, collaborative learning is central to the transdisciplinary approach, which views the researcher or teacher as a facilitator of learning rather than an expert. Transdisciplinary inquiry adopts a complexity-informed, participatory stance that transcends disciplinary boundaries to address real-world problems.  Given today’s global challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss, sustainable development, the energy transition, food security and cyber security, new types of solutions and accompanying co-creative and explorative processes at the social-technical-environmental interface are a necessity. 

A transdisciplinary inquiry is characterised by:

• An inclusive co-creative process of exploring problems which acknowledges the emergent quality of collaboration and the importance of engagement with all on equal terms;
• The promotion of equitable co-development processes by recognising and designing for the unequal power dynamics across different stakeholder groups;
• The co-production of knowledge that is  relevant to the real-world context, inclusive of local, place-based experience and knowledge that has been historically marginalised, informed by multiple sources of knowledge and disciplines, and that goes beyond disciplinary boundaries in its use of  theories, frameworks and concepts;
• The open, systemic,  inclusive and reflexive stance of the researchers involved i.e. facilitatory, flexible, tolerant, life-long learning and a motivation to focus on societal problems and generate societal impact;
• Facilitation of knowledge creation and exchange and social  learning processes of actors, now and in the future, accompanied by documentation of learning processes, both successes and failures.