TY - JOUR
T1 - Enabling transdisciplinary research collaboration for planetary health
T2 - insights from practice at the environment-health-development nexus
AU - Wardani, Jane
AU - Bos, Joannette J. (Annette)
AU - Ramirez-Lovering, Diego
AU - Capon, Anthony G.
N1 - Funding Information:
While funders have recognised the importance and potential of transdisciplinary research to address societal challenges (e.g., National Science Foundation, 2018, European Research Council Synergy Grant, Horizon 2020, and others), in some funding agencies, inter‐ and transdisciplinary research remains secondary to disciplinary budget categories. These funding agencies continue to favour epistemological over pragmatic ends of research (Klein, 2017 ), consistent with using knowledge for enlightenment rather than decision‐making and problem‐solving (Clark, Tomich, et al., 2016 ). Bark et al. ( 2016 ) suggest that interdisciplinary research suffered from disciplinary biases of funding programs and the lack of assessment framework or metrics. Funding allocation mechanisms rely primarily on publication outputs to evaluate excellence, reflecting entrenched academic structures. A balanced assessment framework with inter‐ and transdisciplinary panel compositions could help value the synergistic aspects of transdisciplinary research in the peer‐review process. Practice experience highlights the need for donors to form joint funding programs and redefine research quality based on societal impact (Brown et al., 2015 ; OECD, 2020 ). 8 9 10 11
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - In recent decades, transdisciplinary research has been increasingly recognised as necessary to produce solutions for sustainable development; however, implementation challenges remain. The emerging field of planetary health offers a unique lens to guide a new synthesis of perspectives, recognising interlinkages between environmental and human health, and interdependence across global development contexts, that is, at the environment-health-development nexus. This broad, practice-based literature review consolidates learnings from previous transdisciplinary research across these diverse yet interrelated fields, and aims to deepen understanding of, and identify opportunities for, enabling collaborative practice. This review found structural, relational, and individual factors enabling and constraining collaboration. Local research contexts and academia's disciplinary traditions posed structural constraints that required relational efforts at the project, organisational and individual levels to address. This analysis revealed strategic opportunities for funding programs and researcher training that can be leveraged to increase capacity for relational work, further enabling collaboration in transdisciplinary research.
AB - In recent decades, transdisciplinary research has been increasingly recognised as necessary to produce solutions for sustainable development; however, implementation challenges remain. The emerging field of planetary health offers a unique lens to guide a new synthesis of perspectives, recognising interlinkages between environmental and human health, and interdependence across global development contexts, that is, at the environment-health-development nexus. This broad, practice-based literature review consolidates learnings from previous transdisciplinary research across these diverse yet interrelated fields, and aims to deepen understanding of, and identify opportunities for, enabling collaborative practice. This review found structural, relational, and individual factors enabling and constraining collaboration. Local research contexts and academia's disciplinary traditions posed structural constraints that required relational efforts at the project, organisational and individual levels to address. This analysis revealed strategic opportunities for funding programs and researcher training that can be leveraged to increase capacity for relational work, further enabling collaboration in transdisciplinary research.
KW - development practice
KW - knowledge co-production
KW - planetary health
KW - research collaboration
KW - sustainable development
KW - transdisciplinarity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124731020&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/sd.2280
DO - 10.1002/sd.2280
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85124731020
SN - 0968-0802
VL - 30
SP - 375
EP - 392
JO - Sustainable Development
JF - Sustainable Development
IS - 2
ER -