EVENT RECAP: Transdisciplinary challenges and opportunities for telecoupling research

Related GLP Member: Andreas Heinimann, Jonas Nielsen, Allison Thomson, Dr. Julie Zähringer, Dr. Cecilie Friis

In June, the GLP Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems Working Group held their sixth webinar, in which they aimed to start a conversation on transdisciplinary research designs in complex settings in relation to telecoupling research and in the wider land system science community.

Transdisciplinary research designs are increasingly emphasized, and co-design and co-production of sustainability solutions are central to the GLP Science Agenda. There is therefore a need to reflect on the initial learning outcomes of the increasing number of research projects in land system science that seek to engage in transdisciplinary formats. The COVID19 pandemic further complicates the transdisciplinary research endeavor, as stakeholder meetings can only be conducted virtually. However, this has already been a challenge in telecoupled situations earlier, where the different stakeholder contributing to or affected by a land use change are geographically distant.

The webinar included three short inputs from GLP members, as well as cross-cutting discussions. Andreas Heinimann provided inputs from the long-term experience of the CDE with North-South research partnerships and the work on setting up the Wyss Academy for Nature, Jonas Østergaard Nielsen brought experiences from transdisciplinary collaboration through the ITN-COUPLED, and Allison Thomson presented insights from her many years of experience at the science-business interface and work at the organization Field to Market. 

Presentations:

From Insights to Impacts: A few reflections on partnership based, transformative sustainability research in a connected world, Andreas Heinimann (PDF, 4.3MB)

Engaging private sector stakeholders, Allison Thomson (PDF, <1 MB)

You can also view recordings of the other webinars and download supplementary materials on the working group's homepage.

We encourage you to become a member of GLP for free and join the Telecoupling working group to help shape future offerings.