NEB Compass self-assessment – Step 5/6 – Principles

working PRINCIPLES – transdisciplinary approach

Transdisciplinary approach

How broad is the collaboration from various fields and practitioners in the project?

The Working Principle Transdisciplinary emphasizes bringing together insights from different fields and collaborating with practitioners across diverse fields.

It encourages approaches that transcend disciplinary boundaries, allowing solutions to be applied across different fields.


Read more about the ambitions

To be Multidisciplinary

Diversity of disciplines • Diverse educational backgrounds • Common problem definition

A project at ambition level I aims to address a common problem within a specific field of knowledge. Working in a multidisciplinary way involves working independently alongside other disciplines that engage in similar topics.

Example

A project aiming to transform a 1960s residential building in Papagos (Greece) promotes collaborative processes among executives of the Hellenic Institute of Passive Building (HPHI), certified passive building designers, engineers and technicians from all sectors and commercial and technical departments of companies.

Possible guiding questions
  • Is there a common problem definition shared between the different stakeholders? How do you get to have one?
  • How many different educational backgrounds are involved? Could there be more involved?
  • What is the distance between disciplines, e.g. urban planners working with architects (small distance) or biologists working with artists (large distance)? What system does the project put in place to bridge it?
 

To be Interdisciplinary

Knowledge creation • Intensity of communication • Integration of results

A project at ambition level II aims to address a common problem involving two or more fields of knowledge. Working in an interdisciplinary way means collaborating with other disciplines towards a shared goal.

Example
In the Barcelona Superblocks project (Spain), the administration was coordinated among different departments and interdisciplinary teams bringing together specialists in urban planning, green areas, mobility, geographers, engineers, artists and architects.
Possible guiding questions
  • What is the intensity of communication? How is it managed?
  • Is there new knowledge creation?
  • Are results integrated between each other? How?
 

To be Beyond Disciplinary

MNonacademic partnerships • Interaction with nonacademics • Public engagement • Collaborative process • Level(s) of interaction

A project at ambition level III aims to integrate both formal and nonformal knowledge to achieve a common goal. It seeks to unite individuals from political, social and economic fields with members of the public to explore possibilities and create new narratives.

Example
The international, cross-disciplinary master’s programmes offered by the International Programmes in Sustainable Developments Department at the University of Applied Arts Vienna (Austria) aims to educate students on how to approach global challenges by ‘considering a transdisciplinary approach which involves non-academic and cooperation partners and stakeholders from all societal groups’ from the outset of a project.
Possible guiding questions
  • Are nonformal knowledge partners involved in the knowledge creation? How?
  • Is equal value given to formal and informal knowledge? How?
  • Is there a common goal? What is the plan to reach it collectively?
  • Is there a collaborative process in place that facilitates the merging of different knowledge fields? How does it work?