Hofmann Benjamin, Reber Ueli, Ammann Priska, Dötzer Julia, Mark Jennifer, McCallum Chloe, Wiget Milena, Zachmann Lucca
Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 133, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Sustain Sci. 2025;20(5):1791-1808. doi: 10.1007/s11625-025-01702-x. Epub 2025 Jun 20.
To understand complex societal transformations, scholars have called for more interdisciplinary research in which researchers from various disciplines collaborate. To support the implementation of such collaborations, we introduce a novel typology of interdisciplinary collaborations developed from the literature and from structured reflection on our own research experience. The typology distinguishes (I) common base, (II) common destination, and (III) sequential link type of interdisciplinary collaborations. Common base refers to an interdisciplinary collaboration at one research stage that later separates into parallel disciplinary work; common destination to a collaboration where separate disciplinary work feeds into joint interdisciplinary work at the next stage; and sequential link to a completed stage of disciplinary research that provides the basis for research in another discipline. We illustrate the typology with a case study of interdisciplinary collaborations in a research project that studied the potential for an evidence-based transformation of agricultural pesticide governance. The project involved researchers from seven natural, health, and social science disciplines who developed a process for forming and maintaining interdisciplinary collaborations. We provide five examples of interdisciplinary collaborations from the project, explaining for each its practical design and implementation, its contribution to overall research goals, and related opportunities and challenges. The examples show that the typology can systematize the thinking about interdisciplinary collaborations and enable critical reflection about interdisciplinary research design and implementation. Based on our reflections as early-career researchers, we conclude with lessons that can inform future interdisciplinary research projects on agri-food transformation and beyond.
为了理解复杂的社会变革，学者们呼吁开展更多跨学科研究，让来自不同学科的研究人员进行合作。为了支持此类合作的实施，我们引入了一种新颖的跨学科合作类型学，它是根据文献以及对我们自身研究经验的结构化反思而形成的。该类型学区分了（I）共同基础型、（II）共同目标型和（III）顺序链接型跨学科合作。共同基础型是指在一个研究阶段进行的跨学科合作，随后会分离为并行的学科工作；共同目标型是指这样一种合作，即各自独立的学科工作在下一阶段汇入联合的跨学科工作；顺序链接型是指一个已完成的学科研究阶段为另一学科的研究提供基础。我们通过一个研究项目中的跨学科合作案例研究来说明这种类型学，该项目研究了基于证据的农业农药治理转型的可能性。该项目涉及来自七个自然科学、健康科学和社会科学学科的研究人员，他们开发了一个形成和维持跨学科合作的流程。我们提供了该项目中的五个跨学科合作实例，分别解释了每个实例的实际设计与实施、其对总体研究目标的贡献以及相关的机遇和挑战。这些实例表明，这种类型学能够使关于跨学科合作的思考系统化，并有助于对跨学科研究设计与实施进行批判性反思。基于我们作为初出茅庐的研究人员的反思，我们总结了一些经验教训，可为未来关于农业食品转型及其他领域的跨学科研究项目提供参考。
