Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SHAPE-ID (Shaping Interdisciplinary Practices in Europe)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-08-01 al 2021-10-31
SHAPE-ID addresses a longstanding but unresolved challenge: how to better support meaningful integration of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research (IDR/TDR) with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Addressing the complex challenges the world faces demands expertise from those who study individuals, societies and cultures as well as those that pursue scientific knowledge and technological solutions. Many reports over the years have encouraged increasing AHSS integration, yet it is widely acknowledged that much more still needs to be done to make AHSS integration mainstream – perhaps unsurprising given the significant investment of time, money and infrastructure needed to reshape institutional cultures and create pathways across or between established disciplinary structures.
The project’s main objectives were to review existing research contributing to understanding IDR/TDR; enable stakeholders to jointly explore best and poor practices of IDR/TDR and co-produce recommendations for AHSS integration; engage a panel of experts to validate approaches to enhancing IDR/TDR integration; produce a toolkit and recommendations to guide stakeholders towards successful pathways to AHSS integration; and build and maintain a stakeholder network to ensure knowledge transfer and dissemination of SHAPE-ID recommendations and outputs.
The project’s main objectives were to review existing research contributing to understanding IDR/TDR; enable stakeholders to jointly explore best and poor practices of IDR/TDR and co-produce recommendations for AHSS integration; engage a panel of experts to validate approaches to enhancing IDR/TDR integration; produce a toolkit and recommendations to guide stakeholders towards successful pathways to AHSS integration; and build and maintain a stakeholder network to ensure knowledge transfer and dissemination of SHAPE-ID recommendations and outputs.
1. An extensive review of the academic and policy literature on IDR/TDR and AHSS integration found plural understandings of IDR and TDR in the academic literature and a lack of shared understandings across academic and policy literatures. The academic literature identified 25 factors that can help or hinder IDR/TDR, from personal qualities and motivations to disciplinary cultures and assumptions, institutional supports and the overall policy landscape, noting that these are context-dependent and many can either help or hinder depending for instance on the phase of the project. Tools and time to acknowledge and work with these factors are therefore critical in improving IDR/TDR.
2. Once the academic literature review was completed a survey of researchers experienced in IDR/TDR was undertaken along with interviews with policymakers. Among the key barriers highlighted by the survey were career path issues, differences between academic cultures and disciplinary knowledges, and institutional factors. In particular, pursuing IDR/TDR careers was considered risky by researchers, with institutional reward systems, publication structures and funding programmes still primarily organised along disciplinary lines.
An extensive consultation exercise was undertaken with stakeholders to explore their experiences of the challenges and opportunities of AHSS integration through six learning case workshops which focused on exploring contributions from the AHSS, but in particular the AH, in such research. It was not determined that inter- or transdisciplinary research is better suited to addressing any particular societal challenges, but rather that meaningful integration of AHSS perspectives, as well as stakeholder perspectives, should be considered for all research addressing societal challenges. Consequently, SHAPE-ID recommends a holistic approach to funding societal challenges research, embedding socio-cultural questions in challenge-led or mission-led research wherever appropriate.
The project has furthermore recommended the involvement of AHSS and inter- and transdisciplinary experts in funding programme and call design. These recommendations are made in all SHAPE-ID policy briefs, which have been widely disseminated (1047 downloads on Zenodo as of 30/11/2021).
Simultaneously, the project built, maintained and grew a network of contacts and engaged in an active programme of dissemination and communication, including presentations, blogs, meetings, web and social media and a webinar series.
3. A system of categories presenting preconditions for successful AHSS integration was developed. Recommendations were organised into three categories: structural factors, including the research and policy landscape and institutional structures; competencies and attributes necessary for AHSS integration; and cross-cutting categories concerning understanding and the research life cycle. These classifications underpinned the design of the toolkit. A key focus of developing the toolkit was to reduce duplication of effort in the future by synthesising existing knowledge where it already exists and acting as a “gateway” to direct users to relevant guides, checklists, case studies and recommendations.
Following the production of the toolkit, the project team have actively pursued opportunities to deliver training to funders and researchers, for instance through training co-organised with Net4Society (the National Contact Point network for Horizon Europe Cluster 2) in July 2021 and a workshop organised at the International Transdisciplinarity Conference in September 2021.
2. Once the academic literature review was completed a survey of researchers experienced in IDR/TDR was undertaken along with interviews with policymakers. Among the key barriers highlighted by the survey were career path issues, differences between academic cultures and disciplinary knowledges, and institutional factors. In particular, pursuing IDR/TDR careers was considered risky by researchers, with institutional reward systems, publication structures and funding programmes still primarily organised along disciplinary lines.
An extensive consultation exercise was undertaken with stakeholders to explore their experiences of the challenges and opportunities of AHSS integration through six learning case workshops which focused on exploring contributions from the AHSS, but in particular the AH, in such research. It was not determined that inter- or transdisciplinary research is better suited to addressing any particular societal challenges, but rather that meaningful integration of AHSS perspectives, as well as stakeholder perspectives, should be considered for all research addressing societal challenges. Consequently, SHAPE-ID recommends a holistic approach to funding societal challenges research, embedding socio-cultural questions in challenge-led or mission-led research wherever appropriate.
The project has furthermore recommended the involvement of AHSS and inter- and transdisciplinary experts in funding programme and call design. These recommendations are made in all SHAPE-ID policy briefs, which have been widely disseminated (1047 downloads on Zenodo as of 30/11/2021).
Simultaneously, the project built, maintained and grew a network of contacts and engaged in an active programme of dissemination and communication, including presentations, blogs, meetings, web and social media and a webinar series.
3. A system of categories presenting preconditions for successful AHSS integration was developed. Recommendations were organised into three categories: structural factors, including the research and policy landscape and institutional structures; competencies and attributes necessary for AHSS integration; and cross-cutting categories concerning understanding and the research life cycle. These classifications underpinned the design of the toolkit. A key focus of developing the toolkit was to reduce duplication of effort in the future by synthesising existing knowledge where it already exists and acting as a “gateway” to direct users to relevant guides, checklists, case studies and recommendations.
Following the production of the toolkit, the project team have actively pursued opportunities to deliver training to funders and researchers, for instance through training co-organised with Net4Society (the National Contact Point network for Horizon Europe Cluster 2) in July 2021 and a workshop organised at the International Transdisciplinarity Conference in September 2021.
• Increasing understanding of inter- and transdisciplinarity: with extensive academic and policy literature reviews, survey and interviews with policy stakeholders, SHAPE-ID uncovered the conditions for supporting meaningful interdisciplinarity and provides contextualised access to resources contributing to understanding IDR/TDR in various contexts, including guided reading lists and reflective tools which have been already downloaded close to 500 times.
• Raising awareness of AHSS integration: through communicating often with 730+ newsletter subscribers and robust social media community with 1059 followers on Twitter, and deep engagement with 160+ participants at the SHAPE-ID learning case workshops, and in its 10 online dissemination activities, SHAPE-ID has reinforced the need for AHSS perspectives, as well as stakeholder perspectives, to be considered for all research addressing societal challenges.
• Creating capacity for change: SHAPE-ID delivered or presented in a total of 35 conference presentations, panel and workshop participations and participated in 21 meetings with European funders, university networks and/or invited training events including the COIMBRA Group, ITD21 and TdLab. The SHAPE-ID toolkit, which has been accessed by 8k+ users since 01 July 2021, offers further guidance and empirical evidence to contribute to developing policies for stakeholders to learn and further build on actual practices, including a guide to the toolkit for Research Managers and Administrators and Evaluators.
• Influencing research policy: through directly engaging with research performing organisations and national funders from 13 countries and the European Commission, leaders and staff are aware of practices for designing and evaluating research proposals and the effects of institutional structures can have on the development of inter- and transdisciplinary research. SHAPE-ID also collaborated with LERU to update their influential 2016 Interdisciplinarity in the 21st Century Research Intensive University report, and the three SHAPE-ID policy briefs are particularly useful resources, as indicated by its 1k+ downloads since their publishing.
• Raising awareness of AHSS integration: through communicating often with 730+ newsletter subscribers and robust social media community with 1059 followers on Twitter, and deep engagement with 160+ participants at the SHAPE-ID learning case workshops, and in its 10 online dissemination activities, SHAPE-ID has reinforced the need for AHSS perspectives, as well as stakeholder perspectives, to be considered for all research addressing societal challenges.
• Creating capacity for change: SHAPE-ID delivered or presented in a total of 35 conference presentations, panel and workshop participations and participated in 21 meetings with European funders, university networks and/or invited training events including the COIMBRA Group, ITD21 and TdLab. The SHAPE-ID toolkit, which has been accessed by 8k+ users since 01 July 2021, offers further guidance and empirical evidence to contribute to developing policies for stakeholders to learn and further build on actual practices, including a guide to the toolkit for Research Managers and Administrators and Evaluators.
• Influencing research policy: through directly engaging with research performing organisations and national funders from 13 countries and the European Commission, leaders and staff are aware of practices for designing and evaluating research proposals and the effects of institutional structures can have on the development of inter- and transdisciplinary research. SHAPE-ID also collaborated with LERU to update their influential 2016 Interdisciplinarity in the 21st Century Research Intensive University report, and the three SHAPE-ID policy briefs are particularly useful resources, as indicated by its 1k+ downloads since their publishing.