1.1 Introduction

Welcome to Module 1: Addressing Complex Challenges.

In our societies, we are confronted with a growing number of complex challenges. For example: Climate change increases droughts, making water management, food production, health, and biodiversity conservation more difficult. Rapidly expanding cities struggle to provide services, opportunities, and healthy living conditions for their inhabitants. Additionally, our health systems face challenges such as pandemic outbreaks, rising costs, underserved communities, and drug resistance.

How can research contribute to finding solutions and mitigating such complex problems? What types of research can bring together the necessary knowledge and stakeholders, facilitate discussions on desirable outcomes, and generate strategies and steps towards improvement? How can research be conducted in a manner that is more relevant to society?

Transdisciplinary research is increasingly recognized and tested as an approach that brings together diverse disciplines and societal actors to address urgent societal challenges.

In this series of four courses, Tobias Buser introduces transdisciplinary research and guides you through the main phases and steps involved in tackling complex problems through research. 

Tobias Buser is an expert in collaborative research processes, with extensive experience in designing, conducting, and researching transdisciplinary approaches. He is actively involved in training, coaching, and consulting for transdisciplinary research, including the development of the first massive open online course on transdisciplinarity, as well as training for programs of the International Science Council, the Network of African Science Academies, UNESCO, Future Earth, and various universities and research projects. 

As the Executive Secretary of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, he is enthusiastic about building capacities and supporting international collaboration to advance research approaches and institutional conditions that enable us to address urgent societal challenges.

It is a pleasure to have you in this course, where we explore transdisciplinary research as an approach to addressing societal challenges. The four courses will familiarise you with transdisciplinary research, provide a structure for transdisciplinary projects, and encourage reflection on how transdisciplinary approaches can be implemented in your field of interest. 

In this first course, we will closely examine the concept of transdisciplinary research (TDR). We will explore the nature of societal challenges, discuss their main characteristics, introduce the goals and principles of TDR, and identify the three phases used in transdisciplinary projects. We will also discuss the applicability of TDR and explore potential areas where transdisciplinary approaches can be utilised in your work.