Integration Experts and Expertise

The Working Group explores, develops and promotes academic careers of integration experts across different scientific communities and geographic regions, while strengthening related expertise in integration at the interface between different disciplines as well as between research, policy and practice.

Goals

The purpose of the Working Group is to further explore, develop, and promote academic careers of integration experts across different scientific communities and geographic regions. It also seeks to strengthen related expertise in integration at the interface between different disciplines (interdisciplinary integration) as well as between science, policy, and practice (transdisciplinary integration) to meet pressing environmental and societal challenges of our time.

The specific goals of the Working Group are to:

  1. Develop a joint vision and specific interventions for transforming academic structures and supporting academic careers of integration experts at both individual and institutional level.
  2. Provide a safe space for peer-to-peer exchange and mutual learning across different scientific communities and geographic regions.
  3. Generate a shared set of resources (e.g., concepts, methods, and tools) for addressing recurring challenges of integration in inter- and transdisciplinary research.
  4. Engage in dialogue with research institutes, universities, and funders to discuss lessons learned and best practices on how to support academic careers of integration experts.

These goals are expected to evolve during the process of establishing, expanding, and consolidating this Working Group. The group is open to anyone interested in exploring, developing, and promoting academic careers of integration experts and strengthening related expertise.

Pilot Workshop «Towards a Theory of Change on Integration Experts and Expertise»

What can be done to recognise integration experts and expertise and to support the careers of such experts? A pilot workshop organized within the ITD Alliance Working Group on Integration Experts and Expertise held in Aeschiried, a mountain village in Switzerland, in February 2023 addressed this question. The results of that pilot workshop are available at: Towards a theory of change to institutionalise integration experts and expertise by The Aeschiried Integrators https://i2insights.org/2023/06/06/institutionalising-integration-expertise/

Core Team of the Working Group

○ Sabine Hoffmann, Inter- and Transdisciplinary (ITD) Research Group, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Switzerland

○ Christian Pohl, Transdisciplinary Lab of the Department of Environmental Systems Science (USYS TdLab) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

○ Michael O’Rourke, Toolbox Dialogue Initiative Center at MSU Center for Interdisciplinarity, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

○ Gabriele Bammer, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

○ Christine Ogilvie Hendren, Appalachian State University, USA

○ Sebastian Rogga, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany

○ Alexandra Lux, Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE), Germany

Contact

Sabine Hoffmann

Christian Pohl

Publications

Hoffmann S, Deutsch L, Klein JT, O’Rourke M (2022) Integrate the integrators! A call for establishing academic careers for integration experts. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 9 Link