In contrast to most disciplinary research practices, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects are characterised by a variety of disciplines and various practitioners in professional fields outside academia. As a consequence, general evaluation methods that have been developed for disciplinary work can only be used to assess specific disciplinary contributions but are hence not appropriate for assessing specific inter- or transdisciplinary goals, processes and achievements. Major challenges for evaluators of inter- and transdisciplinarity include making decisions about which dimensions to select and possibly rank when judging the quality of a project – is it the ‘original’ contribution to a particular field, the potential for innovation, the quality of integration, the broader impact or rather the learning process itself, for example. In general, what is missing are established frames of reference and bench marks against which performance and outcomes are measured etc.
To map and examine these issues is a necessary first step for a systematic overview and critical review of the current methodologies as well as for setting an agenda for the evaluation of inter- and transdisciplinarity (ID and TD) as a tool for learning, improvement, innovation and excellence of this type of research.
This year, the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences, with the Swiss National Science Foundation, the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz,and the Center for the study of Interdisciplinarity invit national and international experts to share their knowledge about evaluation models for inter- and transdisciplinary research proposals, processes and outcomes in their larger scientific, socio-political and cultural contexts. This is the final of a series of four annual conferences dedicated to practices, methodologies and epistemologies of inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching
You can submit your proposal for either paper or workshop sessions. Please send your proposal before 9th May 2011 to M. Rossini.
The event will take place place in Berne between 14th and 16th September 2011. We will find all information about this conference on the td-net website.
Illustration : Wwarby, «Tree in Richmond Park », 07.11.2010, Flickr, (licence Creative Commons).
