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INTERSECTIONS

Investigating Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity: Intersections of Practices, Culture(s) and Policy in Collaborative Knowledge Production (INTERSECTIONS)

Overview

Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research (IDR and TDR) – collaborative research spanning methods, approaches, disciplines, and societal spheres – are trapped in a paradox. On the one hand, IDR and TDR promise to catalyse societal transformation and tackle societal challenges. These approaches are therefore heavily promoted by universities, funders, and policymakers. On the other hand, IDR and TDR face a range of challenges on the institutional, organizational, collective, and individual level.

One way through this impasse is to understand the multiple intersections that exist between cultures (knowledge), practices (researchers), and policy (institutions) in IDR and TDR to improve their capacity to address scientific and societal challenges.
 

 

Within the rationale of knowledge cultures, the various ways a scientific community understands and organises knowledge production, interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity have been studied and theorised differently across different scientific communities. Commonly, they are considered to follow a logic of problem-solving, aiming at societal and scientific transformation in the face of complex problems. In practice, however, they differ in their philosophical assumptions as well as methods, values, and norms. At the intersection of research cultures and research practices, we analyse some phenomena of this variety with respect to their complexity and their boundary conditions.

The consolidation of the research on and the conceptual cultures of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity is an important foundation for increasing the understanding of collaborative research practices and how they contribute to tackling societal challenges. Knowledge cultures and practices of IDR/TDR therefore intersect and mutually influence each other.  

Within the project, our aim is to advance the methodological and conceptual approaches for investigating, practicing, and assessing IDR/TDR. This is to identify potentials of the integration of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity into existing knowledge cultures and research practices, as well as their institutionalization in the larger scientific landscape.

 

 

In this intersection, collaborations within academia and interactions with other societal actor groups are relevant. The research practices guiding inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations are influenced by societal needs, values and norms as well as by policy responses in and outside of the institution, funding decisions and roadmaps, and organizational cooperation. Understanding interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary practices informs us about disconnections between the research and the environment it takes place in.

At the level of governance and assessment, this environment involves the science and technology policy realm, funding agencies, institutions and organizations, and related infrastructures. Several well-known obstacles can be better understood through an investigation into how research practices and policies intersect. For instance, one element are the temporal arrangements IDR and TDR operate in. Policymakers and funders favour fast-tracked time-efficient results, which is difficult to align with processes in IDR/TDR that often require more time to set up teams and collaborations, define problems and goals, and grapple with non-linear research processes. Further, values and norms that differ between policy and practice impact how IDR/TDR can be implemented. For example, funders value tangible outputs in the form of publications or patents, while researchers might put focus on intangible outcomes and impacts like newly established networks, improved processes, or building up community knowledge. Understanding such aspects of the intersection between practices and policy is a first step for the institutional environment (i.e. university, policy and funding) to be adapted and allow for higher quality IDR/TDR.

We aim to contribute to an improvement of the conditions for collaboration at the intersection of research practices and science policies by identifying potential disconnections that keep IDR/TDR from developing their full potential in addressing societal challenges.

 

Many governing, funding and assessment structures show the need for an improved dialogue between research and policy. This is especially the case when it comes to TDR that aims to address societal or scientific problems asking for a reflection and exchange of not only diverse disciplines and research fields but also societal stakeholders. Investigating the intersection of knowledge cultures and policy helps to understand existing gaps, collaborative bottlenecks, or dialogical needs.

How organizational and institutional policies influence knowledge cultures in their practices, but also in their philosophical assumptions, methods, values, and norms, in turn, is crucial to understand when it comes to the intersection of policy and culture. Focusing on IDR and TDR demands methods as well as governance and assessment processes that are designed in a way to allow for epistemic diversity and boundary crossing in collaborative research and innovation.

We aim to identify and contribute to policy, assessment and funding instruments that can support such participatory processes to encourage knowledge cultures to tackle complex problems collaboratively and from diverse perspectives. For example, this involves investigating regulation and standardisation processes dominant in institutional and organisational settings, that might hinder or support knowledge cultures to successfully conduct IDR/TDR.

Approach and Methods

This project is situated in the intersection of different fields. We bring together concepts and tools from science and technology studies (STS), social anthropology, meta-research, philosophy, cultural studies as well as science and technology policy. This is represented by the methods employed and the questions studied. A critical approach is taken to consider the space, realisation, and integration of current IDR/TDR addressing scientific and societal challenges. This is achieved by problematising and defamiliarising existing preconceptions of interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity and enabling researchers, policy makers and funders alike to strengthen IDR/TDR in dominant institutionalization, governance, and assessment approaches.

In the first phase of the project, we conduct an extensive review of the academic and grey literature on interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity external page in the form of a meta-ethnography. This allows us to consolidate the theoretical approaches on interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity and lays the theoretical foundations for the empirical investigation. The complex search strings used to query Web of Science and Scopus, the consolidated database of academic literature; of grey literature; as well as external page of norms in IDR/TDR resulting from this review, are published as open-access datasets. Accompanying the literature review, we interview scholars who have studied or practiced interdisciplinarity and/or transdisciplinarity. These conversations deepen our understanding of knowledge cultures around IDR/TDR.

In the second phase, we conduct multi-sited ethnographic research in selected research centres in Switzerland conducting IDR/TDR. We also qualitatively study the schemes under which these centres are funded, especially their assessment structures, to understand their impact on collaboration in IDR/TDR in Switzerland.
The multi-sited ethnographic research consists of 

  • participant observation in the physical and virtual environments of the multiple sites of the research centres and related institutions 
  • semi-structured interviews and focus groups with researchers and staff of the centres, as well as individuals or groups representing governance, funding, and assessment
  • document analysis of material provided by the centres or their funding institutions, concerning planning and reporting or related policies 
  • workshops to initiate dialogue on existing and co-creation of new resources for IDR/TDR practices 

These explorations provide insight into collaborative research practices and relevant influencing factors on the levels of methods and transformation, values and assessment, as well as norms and governance. 

The third phase of the project is dedicated to integrating and synthesising the project results. Consideration is also given to how IDR/TDR, funding and policy related with unknowns and ignored research topics. The identified intersections between research practices, knowledge cultures and policy build the basis to invent new methods and tools that support future efforts to study or conduct IDR and TDR. Further, results are shared, and tools are tested in workshops with policymakers, funders, researchers, practitioners and experts. These workshops have the dialogical goal of enabling exchange about necessary strategies and transformation in the practice, culture and policies surrounding IDR and TDR. 

Enlarged view: Photo of whiteboard
(Source: Swiss National Science Foundation)

Workshop Series 

In the light of the project’s goals, the research team will offer a series of six workshops in 2025 and 2026 to create a forum to discuss targeted topics and to share and interpret findings with and among relevant actors from academia, policy and practice. The series responds to the aim of strengthening the intersection between research and policy (WP3). This will be achieved by exploring and developing plural meanings, perspectives and visions of policy makers, funders, and researchers.

We chose the format of workshops for this stage of the INTERSECTIONS project as this allows the research team to implement dialogical and discursive ways of disseminating and interpreting results. As we aim to strengthen the intersection between IDR, TDR, policy and funding, we want to operate at and within these intersections and create a sustainable impact.

By opening a space for exchange and networking where we can present and discuss our results, the workshops enable us to create insights that can transform our results into specific and targeted opportunities for transformation in interactions between research, policy, and funding related to inter- and transdisciplinary research. 

The results of the INTERSECTIONS workshops – such as shared interpretations, discussions, consensus or disagreements on the various critical topics, and tested collaborative tools – inform different deliverables and outputs of the INTERSECTIONS project. Complementary to the grounded theory approach guiding the data analysis of INTERSECTIONS, this allows to inform decision-making related to IDR/TDR policy and funding bottom-up:  

  • Outcomes of the INTERSECTIONS workshops will feed into a set of policy briefs on IDR/TDR and into related briefs for policy, funding or organisation efforts of IDR/TDR in Switzerland and Europe.  
  • Outcomes of workshops led by the doctoral candidates will be integrated in their dissertations and discussed and contextualised according to the doctoral projects’ topic, IDR/TDR assessment (Schaltegger) and IDR/TDR governance (Winiger).  
  • Conceptual tools designed in INTERSECTIONS that are tested in workshops will be published by the team or the respective doctoral project with the aim of strengthening IDR/TDR collaborations as well as their institutionalisation. They will be incorporated in online toolboxes to be used in Switzerland and internationally.  

Outputs: Academic publications

Outputs: Published Datasets

Under the INTERSECTIONS project, several datasets have been published. You can read more about them below:

           

Interested in this project?

Check out our open Bachelor's and Master's thesis topics or read about ongoing doctoral and previous Master's theses below.

Doctoral Theses

Ongoing: 

Norms and Governance in Transdisciplinary Research Settings of Emerging Technologies

Docotoral candidate: Helena Winiger

Timeframe: September 2023 - August 2027

Abstract: The governance of technologies in society requires addressing complex problems rooted in technological advancement not only in the societal issues that follow, but also in their emergence. Inter- and transdisciplinary research is in high demand to address existing complex problems. Furthermore, the socio-technical innovation processes at the basis of existing and future problems are studied. But, despite existing policies, inter- and transdisciplinarity are not fully integrated into scientific practice. Besides, the societal governance of technologies is not yet responsive enough to address arising complex problems.

My doctoral project aims to study inter- and transdisciplinary research in domains involving emerging technologies. It focuses on the role of institutional norms and governance processes that are iterated in organizational practices and policies. A thorough understanding of such institutional norms aims to contribute to the co-production of participatory governance mechanisms for technology development and use by standardization or policy instruments. Furthermore, the outcome of this study will support an empirically grounded discussion and development of science policy and funding targeting inter- and transdisciplinary research related to emerging technologies in Switzerland and beyond.

In this study, qualitative methods are used. A literature review provides the position and framework of the study. It anchors the topic inter- and transdisciplinarily in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Interviews, focus groups, and multi-sited ethnographic research in Swiss research centers involving emerging technologies contribute empirically to the conceptual approach. Grounded theory guides the data analysis. Findings on institutional norms will feed into efforts towards participatory governance and responsible innovation, e.g., through tools to be applied in a transdisciplinary manner.

Completed:

A Social and Cultural Perspective on Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research Assessment: Learning From Three Swiss Funding Schemes

Doctoral candidate: Anne-Sophie Schaltegger

Timeframe: February 2022 – May 2026

Abstract: Inter- and transdisciplinary research (IDR/TDR) are widely promoted for their transformative potential, yet they continue to face a range of barriers. One of these is research assessment, which often fails to account for the specific conditions and characteristics of collaborative and boundary-crossing research. In funding contexts specifically – through proposal evaluation and subsequent funding decisions, as well as project monitoring – assessment practices can negatively affect the funding prospects and development of IDR/TDR. Addressing this problem requires a better understanding of the current assessment practices and the actual, lived realities of the actors involved in IDR/TDR assessment. This thesis therefore ethnographically investigates the social and cultural dimensions of IDR/TDR assessment by studying assessment panels, funding officers, and researchers in the Swiss funding context.   

The research focused on three paradigmatic funding schemes: the Swiss National Science Foundation’s National Centres of Competence in Research (NCCR) and National Research Programmes (NRP), as well as the Swiss Federal Office of Energy’s SWEET programme (“SWiss Energy research for the Energy Transition”). Using a qualitative, grounded-theory approach, the study combined semi-structured interviews, participant observation, document analysis and a systematic review. The results were further discussed and synthesised in workshops with panel members, funding officers and researchers.   

The research generated three overarching, interrelated lines of insights. From a cultural perspective, the findings revealed the need to actively work with and navigate – rather than reducing – the conceptual complexity and diversity of epistemic cultures. Productive IDR/TDR assessment requires time and space for panel members to understand different perspectives in the panel, disentangle competing priorities and values, and align their assessment with the aims of the funding scheme.   

Secondly, considering the social dimensions of IDR/TDR assessment, the study underscores its fundamentally relational nature. Meaningful dialogue between assessment panels and researchers in particular, but also with funding officers, emerged as essential for building mutual understanding and trust. In the context of IDR/TDR, many of the insights most relevant to assessment only became available through interaction and exchange beyond formal reporting.   

Third, the findings pointed to three distinct functions of assessment in the IDR/TDR funding context: evaluation and accountability, support for the successful implementation of IDR/TDR, and collective learning through the exchange of expertise and experience. Particularly during project monitoring, the latter two functions were seen as essential given the complexity and collaborative nature of IDR/TDR. They contributed to making assessment a meaningful and productive process for both researchers and panel members. The thesis concludes with a set of recommendations for strengthening IDR/TDR assessment in funding contexts, in alignment with both the transformative ambitions of IDR/TDR and the realities of those assessing, funding, and implementing it.

Masters Theses

Ongoing:

Inequality Regimes and the Persistence of the Gender Gap: A Case Study of Three STEM-Interdisciplinary Focused National Centres of Competence in Research in Switzerland

Master's student: Anton Djerbi

Timeframe: March 2026 - September 2026

Supervisor: PD Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)

Co-Supervisor: Helena Winiger
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)

Summary: Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as in higher level positions in the academic world. This gap poses an equity problem as it contributes to the gender pay gap, but it also leads to a biased production of knowledge. This has been addressed in studies as well as in policy documents but as of now policies implemented in Switzerland, and most notably in STEM-Interdisciplinary research centers have failed to close this gap. These organizations are institutions that produce or reproduce inequalities on the basis of class, gender, race, and sexuality. These inequalities are maintained through a set of interrelated behaviors and dynamics that result in an inequality regime.
This MSc Thesis focuses on this gap. By examining the relationship between gender equity policies and inequality regime in three STEM-Interdisciplinary research centers, and the perception of those policies by members of the research teams, this MSc Thesis would contribute to the larger discussion on women in STEM and on gender in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
In this study qualitative methods are used. A review of policy documents will be conducted, as well as focus groups and semi-structured interviews. The implementation of the policies will be categorized and then analyzed using policy implementation dynamics. Critical theory will then be used to analyze the interviews and focus groups, in order to examine the underlying ideological forces influencing the actions of the participants.

Completed:

The Role of Emotions and Affection in Interdisciplinary Research

Master's student: Valeria Merlo

Timeframe: December 2023 - May 2024

Supervisor: PD Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)

Co-Supervisor: Anne-Sophie Schaltegger, MSc
Cultural Studies of Science and Technology
Transdisciplinarity Lab (D-USYS)

Summary: Many of today’s societal problems, such as the loss of biodiversity due to intensified agriculture, are illdefined and have complex interrelationships. Addressing such problems requires interdisciplinary research (IDR), which involves collaboration across different fields. However, IDR faces significant challenges that impede its effectiveness. It is important to study these challenges in order to improve the conditions under which scientists conduct such research and to solve wicked societal problems.

This thesis investigates challenges related to emotional and affective dimensions in IDR. IDR involves high levels of collaboration and integration between different fields of knowledge, often requiring researchers to step out of their comfort zones and engage in discomfortable situations. This research aims to understand what scientists do to regulate their own emotional experience (emotional labour) and the emotional experience of others (affective labour) to navigate between comfort and discomfort. Furthermore, it investigates the interconnectedness between researchers' emotional and affective labour and their appraisal of collaborative situations on a comfort-discomfort continuum. Methodologically, this study is based on a comprehensive literature review as well as an ethnographic fieldwork. The ethnographic data was collected at the interdisciplinary research centre LIVES1 and includes participant observation, interviews as well as diary entries.

To contribute to the understanding of emotional and affective labour in the context of interdisciplinary research collaboration, this study firstly introduces a theoretical framework that explores the interconnectedness between emotional and affective labour and researchers’ appraisal of a situation. The proposed framework integrates the Learning Zone Model2 with the Process Model of Emotion Regulation3 as shown in Figure 1. Secondly, the framework is applied to analyse ethnographic field data. The findings of the ethnographic fieldwork show that researchers in interdisciplinary collaborations must navigate the comfort-discomfort continuum in three areas of (in)securities: disciplinary, career, and interpersonal (Figure 2). The strategies they used individually and collectively to navigate this continuum are summarized in Table 1. The findings illustrate how secure collective relationships support individuals in crossing disciplinary boundaries and emphasize the need for a non-judgmental mindset to create a collective environment for sharing different perspectives. Furthermore, they demonstrate how the employed strategies influenced the researchers’ appraisal of emotional experiences by helping them to contextualise and relativise these experiences, to observe and alter appraisal patterns, and to accept discomforting experiences as less detrimental to their well-being. Additionally, it is demonstrated how the concept of mindfulness proves as a valuable lens to understand how specific strategies for emotional regulation can alter the way how situations are appraised.

Notes:

1 external page https://www.centre-lives.ch/en

2Senninger, T. (2000). Abenteuer leiten - in Abenteuern lernen Methodenset zur Planung und Leitung kooperativer Lerngemeinschaften für Training und Teamentwicklung in Schule, Jugendarbeit und Betrieb. Ökotopia Verlag.

3Gross, J. J. (2013). Handbook of emotion regulation. Guilford publications.

Figure 1: Theoretical Framework of Analysis
Figure 1: Theoretical Framework of Analysis
Figure 2: Three areas of (in)securities in the comfort-discomfort continuum
Figure 2: Three areas of (in)securities in the comfort-discomfort continuum
Table 1: Individual and Collective Strategies for Emotion Regulation
Table 1: Individual and Collective Strategies for Emotion Regulation

Project core team

  • PD Dr Bianca Vienni-Baptista, Group Lead
    PD Dr Bianca Vienni-Baptista, Group Lead
  • Anne-Sophie Schaltegger, PhD researcher
    Dr. des. Anne-Sophie Schaltegger, PhD researcher
  • Helena Winiger
    Helena Winiger, Doctoral Candidate
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Funding

Enlarged view: SNSF logo

"Investigating interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity: intersections of practices, culture(s) and policy in collaborative knowledge production" (Intersections) is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), external page Programme PRIMA, Grant No. 201582, period 2022–2026.

We thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for the funding and all research centers and institutions who offer their collaboration to enable this research. 

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