PurposeInter-and transdisciplinarity are core concepts in almost all ESD competence frameworks and curricula. To equip students with inter-and transdisciplinary competencies is highly demanding for educators. Educators must not only know how to teach students such competencies, but need to be experienced in inter-and transdisciplinary research and must have some technical knowledge about inter-and transdisciplinarity. The paper shows how university educators can be supported in their teaching. Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a case study based on research and on experiences in interdisciplinary teaching and in supporting educators in their interdisciplinary teaching. FindingsThe paper presents a competence framework of interdisciplinary competencies to guide university teachers that has been developed, implemented and refined in interdisciplinary study programmes belonging to the field of ESD. It shows how the professional development of educators could be addressed referring to the experiences in these programmes. The measures presented consist for one thing of interdisciplinary processes among the educators and of measures directly supporting educators in their teaching for another thing. Originality/valueThe case study the paper refers to is of special value first, because the experiences are based on long-standing research and on two decades of experiences. Second, because considerable efforts were made to deliver coherent and consistent interdisciplinary teaching in which interdisciplinarity was not only a teaching subject for the students but showed by the educators as well so that the educators involved did not only talk about competencies for inter-and transdisciplinary collaborations but also set an example in their own doings. KeywordsInterdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary teaching, teaching interdisciplinarity, teaching transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary competencies Di Giulio, Defila -International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 18, Nr. 5 -1Enabling university educators to equip students with inter-and transdisciplinary competencies Abstract Purpose

Non‐native invasive species are a major threat to biodiversity, especially in freshwater ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems are naturally rather isolated from one another. Nonetheless, invasive species often spread rapidly across water sheds. This spread is to a large extent realized by human activities that provide vectors. For example, recreational boats can carry invasive species propagules as “aquatic hitch‐hikers” within and across water sheds. We used invasive gobies in Switzerland as a case study to test the plausibility that recreational boats can serve as vectors for invasive fish and that fish eggs can serve as propagules. We found that the peak season of boat movements across Switzerland and the goby spawning season overlap temporally. It is thus plausible that goby eggs attached to boats, anchors, or gear may be transported across watersheds. In experimental trials, we found that goby eggs show resistance to physical removal (90 mN attachment strength of individual eggs) and stay attached if exposed to rapid water flow (2.8 m·s−1for 1 h). When exposing the eggs to air, we found that hatching success remained high (>95%) even after eggs had been out of water for up to 24 h. It is thus plausible that eggs survive pick up, within‐water and overland transport by boats. We complemented the experimental plausibility tests with a survey on how decision makers from inside and outside academia rate the feasibility of managing recreational boats as vectors. We found consensus that an installation of a preventive boat vector management is considered an effective and urgent measure. This study advances our understanding of the potential of recreational boats to serve as vectors for invasive vertebrate species and demonstrates that preventive management of recreational boats is considered feasible by relevant decision makers inside and outside academia.

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The future of energy depends on present decision-making, and present decision-making depends on assumptions about future effects of energy policy. Individuals have two roles in this: In their citizen-role they have to consent to measures and support their implementation, in their consumer-role they have to adopt and implement measures in their behaviour. Our question is, how distinct these roles are with regard to how they inform individuals' perceptions and concerns related to energy policy options. By applying the "Futures Wheel" method we explored how individuals think future energy policy measures would impact their lives (consumer-perspective). By asking them whether and for what reasons in a voting they would say "yes" or "no" to them we inquired into their assessment of these measures from a citizens' perspective. Our results show that the two roles consumer and citizen trigger different patterns of thinking. Energy policy design and decision-making should consider both. Life quality and justice are important for individuals in both roles. The "Futures Wheel" method helps uncovering assumptions about the future individuals are unaware of and is a suitable method to explore anticipated effects of energy policy options. It might be useful to facilitate societal debate about the future of energy.

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This chapter introduces and describes a typology of policy instruments that has a dual purpose. It serves (1) as a conceptual tool for integrating the findings of the different studies that were part of our inter-and transdisciplinary research and (2)

Collaborative problem framing is crucial to arrive at integrated results in inter- and transdisciplinary research projects. Its significance is supported by empirical evidence gained in a survey, which shows significant differences concerning common goals, language, and theoretical basis between teams who had achieved a synthesis and those that had not. A shared view of a problem and of how to deal with it is the starting point for inquiries of individuals and/or subprojects, and the point to return to after their results are available. Thus, balancing collaborative and individual work is crucial in managing such projects. Managing inter- or transdisciplinary projects covers a number of highly demanding processes taking place during their life span. It is a complex and demanding scientific task that could be called “content-rich moderation” (following the German “Inhaltsreiche Moderation”) to express its nature. To succeed, managers of inter- or transdisciplinary projects need different kinds of expertise.