Transdisciplinary research (TDR) not only brings together a wide range of actors from across scientific disciplines and societal sectors, but the scope of potential roles in TDR is also broad. From disciplinary researchers or sectoral practitioners with interest towards other actor’s fields to process leaders and honest brokers, there is room and need for different roles and personalities.

What could be your role and identity in TDR? As an exercise, we propose two sets of potential roles, encouraging you or your group of collaborators to reflect on your role(s).

Version 1

An article on the researchers’ roles in knowledge co-production¹ proposes three roles that are important for co-productive research:

• Reflective scientist: A reflective scientist is capable of providing expertise based on scientific knowledge validated according to the norms of natural or social sciences.
• Intermediary: An intermediary is able to make different interests and thought styles visible and to link them around common interests.
• Facilitator: A facilitator is capable of enhancing communicative processes between actor groups, based on respect, openness, and deliberation.

Exercise: Where would you position yourself?

• Draw a triangle with the three roles in each corner,
• Place yourself as a dot in the triangle, and
• Think about why you placed yourself at this specific place or in this specific role and write down your answer or discuss with colleagues.

In groups, members might want to physically position themselves according to the role they’d choose in the triangle. You can do this by:

• Writing the three roles each on a piece of paper,
• Placing these sheets of paper on the floor (so that they form a triangle),
• Let all group members place themselves at their preferred spot in the triangle, and
• Let them explain why they chose the place where they are standing.

Version 2

Another set of potential roles was introduced by Roger Pielke JR. in his book ‘The Honest Broker: Making Sense of Science in Policy and Politics’.² He proposes four potential roles for researchers:

• The Pure Scientist: This role pursues knowledge production without interference of the political or practical sphere.
• The Science Arbiter: This role supports decision-makers by providing answers to questions that can be addressed empirically, that is to say, using the tools of science.
• The Issue Advocate: The defining characteristic of this role is a desire to reduce the scope of available choice, often to a single preferred outcome among many possible outcomes.
• The Honest Broker of Policy Alternatives: The defining characteristic of the honest broker is a desire to clarify, or sometimes to expand, the scope of options available for action.

A short description of these roles can be found on Pielke’s blog.

Exercise: Where would you position yourself?

• Draw a rectangle with the four roles in each corner,
• Place yourself as a dot in the rectangle, and
• Think about why you placed yourself at this specific place or in this specific role and write down your answer with short explanatory arguments.

In groups, members might want to physically position themselves according to the role they’d choose in the rectangle. You can do this by:

• Writing the four roles each on a piece of paper,
• Placing these sheets of paper on the floor (so that they form a rectangle),
• Let all group members place themselves at their preferred spot in the rectangle, and
• Let them explain why they chose the place where they are standing.

Having done one of these exercises, make notes on your experience. Where did you place yourself? Which spot did you choose – and why?

Author: Tobias Buser