An investigation into the challenges of transdisciplinary R&D: Values, culture and the case of the BIOSSAM project
by Alan Colin Brent
March 2012
Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Philosophy in Sustainable Development Planning and
Management at Stellenbosch University
Supervisor: Prof Mark Swilling
Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences School of Public Leadership
Appendix D
201264
Guiding aspect Positive experience √√√√ | ~ | × Commentscommunication ensured easy communication and sharing of
ideas without following a structured protocol. This also ensured openness within the project
Joint planning, including
questions and goals
~
• In the first and second year of project, there was a joint planning and discussion on the project. However, in the last year, the planning was mainly within the work packages rather than joint planning with other work packages. An example of an experience that did not support joint planning in the third year was where there was a mismatch of budget allocation compared to the output required by the different work packages
Good management
mediation
√√√√
There was a good management mediation concerning the following issues:
• Budget allocation among the work packages • Budget overspending
• Performance / deliverable issues / project status
Equality of members /
stakeholders
√√√√
• Generally, there was equality of members and stakeholders. For instance, the project was open to contributions from all team members since failure for one team is a failure for the project as a whole. It was also open to ideas and
contributions from stakeholders of all levels – e.g. communities / civil society and policy-makers
Other organisational structure characteristics?
Other comments/reflections on the BIOSSAM project as a transdisciplinary R&D effort:
While at the onset on the project it was not explicitly indicated that the project is transdisciplinary, the experience of the project and as the project progressed clearly showed that it was a transdisciplinary study. This is because it was dealing with a problem that is outside the academic domain – that is – planning for sustainable development, aimed at advising policy- and decision-makers. Planning for sustainable development is an “ill-defined” problem because no definitive formulation of sustainable development exists as yet. Planning for sustainable development will also require divergent stakeholders
The project made use of the different methodologies throughout its lifespan ranging from static models such as balance sheet and multi-criteria to dynamic approaches such as system dynamics. This is a clear indication that there was no conclusively single “best” methodology and that these methodologies actually do complement each other than being in conflict. This process that was followed in BIOSSAM can be linked to the transdisciplinary research design which moves to respective research designs (e.g. disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary) in search of suitable methodologies for application. This was made possible by having people from different disciplines and fields of experience working together in the BIOSSAM project.
