How can scientists from different disciplines and societal actors interact to co-produce relevant knowledge? All agents should jointly conduct research. This is the main task in the second phase of transdisciplinary research (TDR).

Reaching the end of this chapter, you have explored many perspectives. How can meaningful inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration be fostered? The five cases showed a broad bandwidth of processes and interaction designs, and shared the challenges they were facing in the dynamics of the co-production process.

In the theory part, we looked at different intensities of interaction and came to the conclusion that not every step in a transdisciplinary project is co-production – it is a dynamic sequence of different interaction forms and individual work. Interdisciplinary cooperation was reflected as a form of intercultural dialogue and important aspects of transdisciplinary cooperation were highlighted from the perspective of stakeholders.

TDR projects need a broad set of roles and personalities – you were invited to reflect on what role could fit your personality and your perception of what a ‘good researcher’ could be.

After these intense and rich knowledge co-production processes you may ask yourself, what will be the projects’ results and impacts? Let us have a look at the projects’ outcomes in Chapter 5.

Author: Tobias Buser