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New research examines how academics engage stakeholders on sustainability challenges 15 Aug 2023
A new research paper led by MaREI’s Dr Evan Boyle and Connor McGookin analyses the transdisciplinary approaches academics use to engage with stakeholders on pressing sustainability challenges.
The research presented has been undertaken in light of the experiences of the two lead co-authors as early career researchers coming from the disciplines of sociology and energy engineering, engaging in transdisciplinary research within a local community context in relation to a regional energy transition project.
Key messages
• Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking to incorporate inter/transdisciplinary approaches to research; however, greater clarity is needed about the values and motivations behind these initiatives.
• Transdisciplinary practitioners are often intrinsically motivated and, as such, mechanisms of support from higher education institutions should be suitably flexible to enable the greatest societal impact to emerge.
•Further investigation into the early career experience is needed to better understand the institutional settings and training/development opportunities that would allow such approaches to flourish.
Read here.
