FRAMEWORKS FOR TRANSDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

This model aims to guide researchers through the challenging tasks of problem constitution, knowledge integration, and the participation of societal actors. It was developed at the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE) in 2004 and subsequently refined. The model builds upon a basic proposition: developing solutions for complex societal problems requires linking these problems to gaps in the existing bodies of knowledge, that is, to scientific problems. This proposition allows one to conceptualize the contributions of research to societal and scientific progress as the two epistemic ends of a single integrative process.