Seminar
Value landscapes in the assessment of inter- and transdisciplinary research projects in Switzerland
- Sophie Schaltegger
- Date
- Friday 21 March 2025
- Time
- Series
- CWTS Research Seminars
- Location
-
Willem Einthoven
Kolffpad 1
2333 BN Leiden - Room
- CWTS Common Rooms
Abstract
In the current research environment, academic and policy actors are pushing for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research because of their promised contribution to addressing complex societal challenges. However, numerous barriers hinder the effective practice of these collaborative research modes. The assessment of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects by funding entities is considered a significant impediment, as it is perceived to fail to align with the distinctive characteristics and needs of these collaborative, boundary-spanning modes of research. Discrepancies in values and value landscapes between researchers and the assessing institutions have been reported to be a contributing factor to challenges arising from research assessment for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. In this seminar I will present the context of and insights from my ongoing PhD research, in which I collaborate with two funding institutions in Switzerland and examine assessment processes in three different funding instruments that promote interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. I will describe my ethnographic research conducted among assessment panels, funding officers and researchers involved in inter- and transdisciplinary projects. Heading into preliminary results, I will present the value landscapes I identified in these assessment processes. Based on these, I will draw a picture of the different assessment cultures in panels assessing interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects in the context of these funding instruments.