Organizational Change for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity

The Organizational Change for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity Working Group (WG) was initiated at the ITD24 conference in Utrecht in November 2024. The purpose of the Working Group is to be practice-oriented, helping institutions to promote the value of ITD as well as helping institutions prepare for scientific and societal changes that will require inter- and transdisciplinary research. An overarching aim is to promote inter- and transdisciplinarity work in organizations. 

This page highlights the goals and upcoming activities. You can also view reports and recordings of Previous Events.

Goals

The working group has the ambition to work across diverse universities, research programmes and research institutions globally and to represent a wide range of specialists, including administrative professionals, management specialists, scientists, leaders and directors, and we represent organizations interested in pursuing inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation. Important topics to cover in the Working Group include structure and agency, benchmarking, organizational change making, funder practices including review panels, organizational strategy work processes, and large-scale university/research institution assessments. The Working Group embraces a pluralistic view on ITD where the motivations and shape are different in different settings. 

Activities

A cornerstone of the Organizational Change for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity working group activities for the first year is a series of similarly formatted workshops. The format and thematics were shaped by two inaugural workshops held in September and the post-workshop survey results.

18 February 2026: Third Organizational Change for ITD Working Group Workshop

The Organizational Change for ITD Working Group of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance) will host a third workshop online on 18 February 2026. 
The major theme this time is to develop suggestions for the upcoming conference  ITD27. We are looking at topics from this WG tailored to the ITD community at large and also to possibly engage external stakeholders to come to the conference (could be funders, research managers, societal partners). We will, as per our tradition, touch base on all three segments of this WG: “the common room”, “the library”, and “the impact project”. 

Time 18 February 2026, 9:00-10:30 CET (on Zoom)
Sign-up: https://doit.medfarm.uu.se/bin/kurt3/kurt/8897680

Workshop Format

The Common Room
Connecting, touching base and sharing.

Format: Brief thematic presentation on a success or dilemma, followed by respondent, open floor discussion, and small group discussion on related topics.
Aim: Community-building and learning from others’ experiences. 

The Library Project.
Collecting, sharing and annotating useful resources. 

Format: Depository for related literature (both peer-reviewed and grey literature) and space for review and discussion.
Aim: Evaluate ITD knowledge base and use it to pivot to new opportunities. 

The Impact Project
Actively advocating and impacting the role of ITD in policy-making, research funding and publishing.

Format: Mapping interest, involving stakeholders, defining the topic, creating action plans.
Aim: Impact specific research policy(ies), funding program, university/institute assessment practices, or certain publishers’ policies; involving and co-creating with the external stakeholders.

Recordings and Presentations from Previous Activities, see below

Previous Events

1 December 2025: Organizational Change for ITD Working Group Workshop

The Organizational Change for ITD Working Group of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance) hosted its second workshop online on 1 December 2025. The brief thematic presentation for this workshop was “Developing an Interdisciplinary Workforce for the Institutionalization of Interdisciplinarity”. To spark the discussion, Marie-France Gévry of Université Laval (Quebec, Canada) presented the Sentinel North Training Program Conceptual Model and its associated Competency Framework, developed to enhance the interdisciplinary capacity of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows within this large-scale research initiative at Université Laval. Bald de Vries of Utrecht University was the respondent. 22 participants attended and explored competencies in breakout groups.

Recordings from the main session and the breakout room you find below.

Workshop Main Room Part 1: (link to a Youtube video)
Workshop Main Room Part 2: (link to a Youtube video)
Workshop Main Room Breakout Room 1: (link to a Youtube video)

Unfortunately there is no recording available for Breakout Room 2.

10 and 18 September 2025: Organizational Change for ITD Working Group Inaugural Digital Workshop

In the inaugural workshops held 10 and 18 September 2025, the Organizational Change for ITD Working Group discussed the future directions, affirmative issues and key challenges related to promoting organizational change for inter- and transdisciplinarity. The participants were actively involved in co-creating plans for the future activities of the Working Group. The planning work will now be continued by the Core Group. Further events are to be announced based on these plans. 12 people participated in both the first inaugural workshop and in the second inaugural workshop.

Recordings from the main sessions and the breakout rooms you find below.

Core Group

  • Abdou Njikam Njifotié, National Centre for Education, Cameroon
  • Anne Salmi, University of Oulu, Finland
  • Annmarie Ryan, University of Limerick, Ireland
  • Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, CIRCUS at Uppsala University, Sweden
  • Iris van der Tuin, Utrecht University, Netherlands
  • Jon Kim, INRAE, France
  • Rebecca Carlson, University of Oulu, Finland

Contact Us

Please use this form to ask questions or to get involved with the working group.