Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research involving the participation of Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (SSHA) with STEM disciplines is key for addressing societal challenges in a meaningful and impactful way. But how can universities, and in particular research and knowledge transfer officers, contribute to supporting inter- and transdisciplinarity? Doireann Wallace, Interdisciplinary Research Funding Officer at Trinity College Dublin and the former Project Manager for SHAPE-ID, explored this question on November 3 2021 during the ASTP event “The Monthly Online SSHA and Impact Flashlight #7”. Doireann provided an overview of the key findings of the SHAPE-ID project and some initial pointers on how to…

Coimbra Group Training Event: Pathways to Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research On November 2nd 2021, Prof. Catherine Lyall and Dr Isabel Fletcher from the University of Edinburgh, delivered training to the Coimbra Group on the SHAPE-ID Toolkit. The event was moderated by Prof. Adriana Zait, Vice-Chair of the Coimbra Group Doctoral Studies Working Group and Director of the Doctoral School of Economics and Business Administration at the University Alexandru Ioan Cuza Iasi (Romania). The purpose of this training event was to introduce key stakeholders to the SHAPE-ID Toolkit and to discuss Pathways to Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research. Participants were also introduced to some of the resources that are valuable for research performing organisations and their communities,…

One of the final events of SHAPE-ID took place in Poland on the 28th of October 2021, where the Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk (IBLPAN) team shared the project outcomes and insights on interdisciplinary cooperation between digital humanities and cultural heritage. The humanities and social sciences are an indispensable component of inter- and transdisciplinary research. The European Commission emphasizes their special role in the missions of the European Union . Many Horizon Europe competitions must consider and describe the role of HS science in the project, even if it relates to other fields. In Polish science, under the third evaluation criterion , we try to show the social impact of the sciences of…

The International Transdisciplinarity Conference took place online on 13-17 September 2021 and was hosted by ETH Zürich, Switzerland. The conference theme was Creating spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation. Crises unleashed by climate change and, more recently, the COVID-​19 pandemic, urge us to finding sustainable solutions to social, cultural, political, economic, ecological and, health challenges. The crisis has shown that existing modes of overcoming challenges are limited. There is a call to move beyond what we already know and do. Building spaces and cultivating mindsets for learning and experimentation are key for creating these new possibilities. Real-​world labs, living labs, social…