Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches bring together different forms of knowledge to address complex environmental, social, and health challenges. As the links between society, the environment, agriculture, and public health become clearer, research and management initiatives are increasingly combining technical, social, and experiential knowledge to support more integrated ways of working.
Many scientific institutions are now moving beyond traditional disciplinary and multidisciplinary models towards more collaborative approaches. These efforts aim to improve understanding, decision-making, and innovation while also supporting longer term change in systems, institutions, and practice.
Working across disciplinary and knowledge boundaries is not straightforward. Differences in methodologies, institutional structures, power relations, and communication styles can create significant barriers. Successful collaboration often depends on intentional design, strong facilitation, trust-building, and ongoing learning.
Increasingly, research programmes are experimenting with practices such as co-learning, shared vision-setting, structured collaboration frameworks, and leadership development to support more effective integration across sectors. Working across knowledge systems also raises questions about how such work is assessed and valued. A related reflection on this site explores peer review as a practice of judgement and care, particularly where scientific, Indigenous, and place-based knowledge come together.
The resources below bring together papers, frameworks, and practical insights on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration. Some focus on conceptual foundations, while others highlight lessons from long-running programmes and practical tools for managing integration in research and practice.
Understanding transdisciplinary collaboration
These resources explore what transdisciplinary collaboration involves in practice, including how learning, roles, and relationships evolve when research moves beyond disciplinary boundaries to address real-world challenges.
Transdisciplinary learning as a key leverage for sustainability transformations
This 2025 paper by Matthias Barth and colleagues presents a framework for structuring transdisciplinary learning to support sustainability transformations. It highlights how different forms of interaction – personal, collaborative, and societal – can be intentionally designed within research initiatives. The paper offers practical insights for fostering effective learning environments and cross-sector collaboration in sustainability projects.
Navigating between promises and realities of transdisciplinary research for environmental conservation
This 2024 paper by Gabriela De La Rosa and colleagues explores the opportunities and tensions involved in transdisciplinary conservation research. Through two linked case studies – one with a fishing community and one examining the research team itself – the authors highlight the importance of care, reciprocity, and power awareness in university–community collaboration.
From promise to practice: promoting transdisciplinary collaboration in health research
This 2024 study by Michael T. Lawless and colleagues examines how health researchers develop transdisciplinary collaboration within a five-year frailty research initiative. Using a longitudinal realist evaluation, it highlights challenges such as time constraints and established collaboration patterns, and suggests strategies including shared understanding, structured collaboration systems, and leadership development.
A new transdisciplinary research model for public health
This 2021 paper by Helen Pineo and colleagues proposes a transdisciplinary research model for addressing complex public health challenges such as climate change and health inequalities. The model outlines six phases, from co-learning and development through to implementation, and emphasises iterative learning and collaboration across research teams and partners.
Science integration in practice
This set of resources focus on how integration actually plays out in long-running programmes and institutional settings, highlighting the relational, organisational, and systemic conditions that enable, constrain, or reshape interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work over time.
Reforming research assessment is a systemic challenge
This reflection by Jemmie Winhall (2026) explores research assessment reform as a systems challenge shaped by purpose, power, resource flows, and relationships. Drawing on examples from universities and funders, it shows why changing metrics alone is insufficient, and how aligned shifts in incentives, governance, and collaboration are needed to embed more ethical, practice-oriented research cultures.
Large-Scale Transdisciplinary Collaboration for Adaptation Research: Challenges and Insights
This 2019 paper by Georgina Cundill et al. shares insights from a seven-year climate change adaptation research programme involving more than 450 researchers and practitioners across 17 countries. It highlights the importance of careful design for transdisciplinary collaboration while recognising the influence of both relational and systemic factors. Relational features include trust, mutual respect, and leadership styles, while systemic features involve legal agreements, power asymmetries, and institutional values.
Indigenous knowledge, methodology and mayhem: What is the role of methodology in producing Indigenous insights? A discussion from mātauranga Māori
This 2016 paper by LT Smith, TK Maxwell, H Puke, and P Temara explores the challenges of integrating mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) within academic methodologies. It discusses philosophical, institutional, and intergenerational tensions that arise when engaging Indigenous perspectives in research, raising critical questions about the role of research methodologies in producing meaningful Indigenous insights.
Bridging disciplines, knowledge systems and cultures in pest management
This 2014 paper by Will Allen, Shaun Ogilvie, Helen Blackie, and colleagues provides practical solutions for integrating social and biophysical sciences in pest management. Using an action research-based approach, the research team critically reflected on their engagement practices, identifying lessons for improving interdisciplinary collaboration. The findings offer valuable guidance for researchers and managers seeking to strengthen engagement in integrated science, management, and policy initiatives.
Frameworks and tools for integration
These links provide conceptual frameworks and practical tools to support the design, management, and reflection of integrated research, helping teams navigate complexity, synthesise diverse forms of knowledge, and link inquiry with decision-making and action.
Disciplining Interdisciplinarity: Integration and Implementation Sciences for Researching Complex Real-World Problems
This 2013 book by Gabriele Bammer provides a systematic approach to addressing complex global challenges such as climate change, poverty, and organised crime. It emphasises the importance of synthesising disciplinary and stakeholder knowledge, managing unknowns, and providing integrated research support for policy and practice change. The book is freely available online in multiple formats.
Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) portal
Curated by Gabriele Bammer, this website provides concepts and methods for tackling complex, real-world problems. It supports researchers working across disciplines, offering information on integration tools, approaches, and networks. The site includes the Integration and Implementation Insights blog (I2Insights blog), where researchers share practical tools and experiences.
Building collaboration and learning in integrated catchment management: the importance of social process and multiple engagement approaches
This 2011 paper by Will Allen et al. reviews lessons from a 10-year integrated catchment management research programme. It categorises different research activities as disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary and provides case studies on how the programme supported collaboration across knowledge systems. The findings offer insights for research leaders and managers aiming to improve interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary collaboration in environmental and agricultural management.
Leading interdisciplinary research : transforming the academic landscape – a stimulus paper
This 2014 paper by Tom McLeish and Veronica Strang explores the challenges of leading and developing interdisciplinary research (IDR). While structural support is crucial, the authors argue that cultural change is equally critical. The paper outlines practices and principles for successful interdisciplinary research and discusses organisational change strategies that support its development.
Epistemological pluralism: reorganizing interdisciplinary research
This widely cited paper by Thaddeus Miller et al. (2008) explores the persistent challenges of interdisciplinary research, arguing that researchers need to rethink the ways interdisciplinary research and training are conducted. It presents epistemological pluralism as an approach that accommodates multiple ways of knowing, leading to more integrated and effective research collaborations.
Other related Learning for Sustainability site pages to outcomes and social learning-based approaches where inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and tools may be used include systemic design, adaptive management and action research. Related tools can be found from the above menu bar and include stakeholder mapping and analysis, theory of change and scenarios and visioning.
[* Image: Auckland, NZ – Will Allen]