Capabilities for transdisciplinary research

Abstract

Problems framed as societal challenges have provided fresh impetus for transdisciplinary research. In response, funders have started programmes aimed at increasing transdisciplinary research capacity. However, current programme evaluations do not adequately measure the skills and characteristics of individuals and collectives doing this research. Addressing this gap, we propose a systematic framework for evaluating transdisciplinary research based on the Capability Approach, a set of concepts designed to assess practices, institutions, and people based on public values. The framework is operationalized through a mixed-method procedure which evaluates capabilities as they are valued and experienced by researchers themselves. The procedure is tested on a portfolio of ‘pump-priming’ research projects in the UK. We find these projects are sites of capability development in three ways: through convening cognitive capabilities required for academic practice; cultivating informal tacit capabilities; and maintaining often unacknowledged backstage capabilities over durations that extend beyond the lifetime of individual projects. Directing greater attention to these different modes of capability development in transdisciplinary research programmes may be useful formatively in identifying areas for ongoing project support, and also in steering research system capacity towards societal needs.

The Societal Readiness Thinking Tool: A Practical Resource for Maturing the Societal Readiness of Research Projects

“…Finally, beyond development and strategic application considerations, in-depth evaluation of the effectiveness and impacts of various use cases of the SR Thinking Tool offers another area of future research. With additional funding, qualitative use-case analyses could illuminate impacts of SR TT adoption on, for example, capabilities conducive to supporting scientist and engineers in anticipating and reflecting on social and ethical dimensions of research and innovation processes (O’Donovan et al, 2021 ). Such studies could provide critical feedback to funding organizations about ways to reconfigure institutional landscapes to be more conducive to anticipatory, reflective knowledge production (Smith et al, 2021 ).…”

Governing beyond the project: Refocusing innovation governance in emerging science and technology funding

“…This means tailoring indicators to their context of use and diversifying the kinds of information they capture to include qualitative information (see Felt et al, 2013) as well as alternative forms of quantitative information, such as the relative diversity of a field (Bozeman & Rogers, 2002). Recent developments in diversity mapping (Bone et al, 2020) and programme evaluations centred on human capabilities (O'Donovan et al, 2022) go some way to achieving this.…”

Transdisciplinary academic-NGO collaborations for the resilience of food, energy, and water: a case study on the INFEWS-ER experience in post-disaster Puerto Rico

“…For instance, NGOs may be motivated by funding access and addressing community issues that span multiple disciplines, while academics are interested in tackling complex FEWS issues and collaborating with NGOs to gain context-sensitive experiences (Harris and Lyon, 2013). Such collaborations bring benefits for all participants (Roper, 2002;Zscheischler et al, 2018), and transdisciplinary research has the inherent ability to enhance both human (O'Donovan et al, 2022) and social capital (Gray, 2008).…”