UNDISCIPLINED: How do research funders define transdisciplinary research? (RoRI Working Paper No. 12)

The UNDISCIPLINED project focuses on the importance of definitions and descriptions of transdisciplinary research (TDR). It investigates how research funders define TDR, the facets of meaning within these definitions, and what can be learned from the different approaches used, within a range of TDR funding programmes.

The working paper comprises a review of selected literature on the intersection of funding and transdisciplinary research, and an analysis of ‘call for proposal’ documents across six funding programmes (seven calls) in three European research funding agencies.

This is followed by a more in-depth series of co-produced case studies, giving insights into six TDR funding programmes from their funders’ perspectives. Three of the case studies provide additional context on programmes outlined in the document analysis (from the Austrian Science Fund, Dutch Research Council and Volkswagen Foundation). The other three provide further context and insights into TDR funding processes (from the Swiss National Science Foundation, King Baudouin Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada).

The working paper concludes with a summary of these evidence strands with reference to our three research questions.