Thinking transdisciplinarily: Question-Collaboration Workshop to ideate across disciplines.

Area of Science:

• Team Science
• Transdisciplinary Research
• Societal Challenges

Background:

• Addressing complex societal challenges requires transdisciplinary collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
• Existing frameworks often support established teams, neglecting the crucial ideation stage.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Question-Collaboration Workshop to stimulate transdisciplinary thinking and foster new research teams.
• Facilitate collaborative question generation at the ideation stage of research.

Main Methods:

• Workshop activities included: Knowledge Creation Framework, Buzzword Networking, Four Layers of Questions, and Known-Unknown Matrix.
• Implemented two workshops at U.S. land-grant universities with diverse researchers.
• Analyzed pre/post surveys and facilitator observations qualitatively.

Main Results:

• Workshops successfully generated novel transdisciplinary questions and initiated collaborations.
• Participants reported increased awareness of disciplinary perspectives and enthusiasm for future engagement.
• Identified challenges: time constraints, scalability, and clarifying the Known-Unknown Matrix.

Conclusions:

• Research questions can catalyze transdisciplinary collaboration and team science competencies.
• The workshop shows promise for fostering transdisciplinary thinking at the ideation stage.
• Future work should refine activities, assess scalability, and evaluate long-term impacts.