Transdisciplinarity
The Rathenau Institute’s department for Science System Assessment has recently completed a study which maps research for coastal defence in The Netherlands. The department was set up to investigate the organisation, operation and dynamics of the Dutch science system. Research for coastal defence is the first field of scientific research to be studied. It is also a pilot study to develop a research methodology that can be used to investigate other fields of scientific research. As part of this study an expert meeting on "Transdisciplinarity for integrated coastal zone management" was organized.
One of the conclusions of the study on coastal defence research is that integrated coastal zone management is high on both societal and policy agendas at present and will probably continue to be in the future. The study furthermore concludes that integrated coastal zone management requires transdisciplinary as well as the more usual disciplinary and interdisciplinary research if societal and policy questions are to be answered. The expert meeting "Transdisciplinarity for integrated coastal zone management" was organised to discuss the first part of this conclusion (see Appendix 2: Programme). More in particular the objective of the workshop was to identify barriers that might exist with respect to transdisciplinary research. A mixture of people was invited: scientists from different disciplines, consultants, civil servants, organisations financing science, and policy makers (see list of participants).
Introducing the topic, the meeting chairman Wim van Vierssen stated that transdisciplinary research concerns "subjects that ask for practical and integrated solutions". He continued to say that many scientists are not used to this way of working and therefore it is difficult to set up transdisciplinary research. According to him, one characteristic of such transdisciplinary investigations is the interweaving of formal, scientific knowledge with less formal, tacit knowledge.
NCK web site.