From invisibility to impact: Recognising the scientific and societal relevance of interdisciplinary sustainability research

Rau, Henrike; Goggins, Gary; Fahy, Frances

doi:10.1016/j.respol.2017.11.005

Cited by 121 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…While the need for recognition of alternative research outputs is well known, debate is ongoing over how best to achieve this, and traditional reward structures still dominate the research landscape (Rau et al. ).…”

Section: The Future Of Interdisciplinary Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants encouraged institutions to measure outputs and success on more than simply publications alone, thus also including non-traditional research outputs such as developing tools and reports for end users, successful engagement with the public, or demonstrated behavior change. While the need for recognition of alternative research outputs is well known, debate is ongoing over how best to achieve this, and traditional reward structures still dominate the research landscape (Rau et al 2018).…”

Section: Creating Spaces and Opportunities For Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology

et al. 2019

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There is a growing need for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in addressing global ecological challenges, and early career researchers (ECRs) often play a vital role in such ventures. But despite the desire for such approaches, forming new and interdisciplinary collaborations is risky, and disproportionately so for ECRs, whose perspectives on this topic are rarely heard. Here, we present common perceptions among ECRs regarding opportunities for intra‐ and interdisciplinary collaboration, and barriers preventing such collaboration from taking place. We also discuss possible solutions, and the ecological outcomes of fostering more collaboration. The perceptions discussed have been distilled from a two‐day workshop in New Zealand, aiming to investigate the potential for collaboration between 34 ECRs in distinct ecological disciplines across ten research institutes. Commonality in methodology or research aims was vital for potential collaborations to be considered worthwhile, but differences in spatial or temporal scales were a key disconnect that hindered numerous potential crossovers. Individual connectivity and institutional structures were commonly perceived as barriers to acting collaboratively in general. Specifically, barriers included having a small peer network, lack of access to funding, and concerns over the risk/reward ratio of forming new collaborations. Overcoming barriers will require active, practical support from institutions, funding bodies and mentors, and participants commonly called for specific funding support and the creation of ECR‐focused spaces to better foster collaborative behavior. Fostering interdisciplinary ECR collaborations in ecology was perceived to be useful in creating larger and more useful datasets and tools, and more scalable and transferable models and outcomes. Adopting practices that facilitate more ECR‐led interdisciplinary collaboration will help generate a more integrative understanding of ecological systems globally.

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Section: The Future Of Interdisciplinary Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Creating Spaces and Opportunities For Collaborationmentioning

confidence: 99%

An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology

et al. 2019

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“…Third, some researchers use the environmental importance as predictors and cost/benefits as mediators to find the weak role of cost/benefits as mediators in China (Liu et al, 2017). We argue that the environmental science reflects multidisciplinary knowledge, actors, agencies, and social logics (Rau, Goggins, & Fahy, 2018). The environmental science forms a broader context for meaning and action of multiple dimensions for sustainability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Science-sustainability Transformational Paradox: An Interdisciplinary and Inter-Institutional Analysis

Th¹,

Chunhui²

2018

Preprint

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The Science-Sustainability poses an interdisciplinary paradox. On the one hand, the science for sustainability has increased in OECD economies particularly in China and US; on the other hand, the sustainability situation has worsened (Co2 emission has risen). The adverse correlation shows a paradox. However, without explicating the science-sustainability relationship, it leads to a premature conclusion. In this study, we have drawn on three concrete questions for concrete answers. First, whether and how interdisciplinary sciences-energy science and environmental science-contribute to the sustainability. Second, whether and how the Sino-US inter-institutional analysis varies in the science-sustainability paradox. The empirical analysis from a panel data in the interdisciplinary and inter-institutional context show mixed patterns in three ways.

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“…In response to our principle research question, ‘Is the nature of the relationship between Open Science and Open Innovation conducive to a knowledge production regime for societal improvement?’, this paper offers some concluding remarks. As Willinsky () notes, the convergence of open approaches to intellectual property represents a common commitment to the public good, and universities remain the primary force in sustaining this open knowledge economy, which extends well beyond their sphere (see also McNie et al, ; Rau et al, ). Indeed, the contemporary socio‐political context in which Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are re‐imaging their civic missions in the face of anti‐establishment populist politics; provides added momentum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open Science and Open Innovation in a socio‐political context: knowledge production for societal impact in an age of post‐truth populism

Smart

Holmes

Lettice³

et al. 2019

R & D Management

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This conceptual paper traces the origins and progress of Open Science and proposes its generative coupling to Open Innovation in the contemporary socio-political context; where universities are re-imaging their civic missions in the face of anti-establishment populist politics. This setting is one of changing knowledge production regimes and institutional pressures that create contradictions identifiable through the prism of the series of scientific norms conceptualised by Robert K. Merton. This paper privileges a sociological perspective to proffer scientific knowledge production as a societally embedded process, which is well illustrated by scholarship in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Science in Society fields. In doing so, it identifies the co-evolution, co-existence and co-production of Open Science with Open Innovation; and notes how it shares the attributes of other recent diagnoses of changing knowledge production regimes; in particular Mode 2, postnormal science and the Quadruple Helix. It also argues that Open Science can be coupled with Open Innovation to catalyse positive societal change, but that the rise of a populist post-truth era opposed to objectivity, expertise and technocratic political solutions gives the demand for openness and participation a different complexion. Merton's norms provide a useful lens to observe recent shifts in the delivery of science, knowledge and innovation in society towards more inclusive, ethical and sustainable outcomes; and expose the limited reflection on how the appropriation and exploitation of open scientific knowledge encounters industrial R&D and Open Innovation.

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From invisibility to impact: Recognising the scientific and societal relevance of interdisciplinary sustainability research

Cited by 121 publications

References 37 publications

An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology

An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology

Science-sustainability Transformational Paradox: An Interdisciplinary and Inter-Institutional Analysis

Open Science and Open Innovation in a socio‐political context: knowledge production for societal impact in an age of post‐truth populism

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