Transdisciplinarity, Integration and Knowledge and Technology Transfer for SWEET

Research plays a central role in the restructuring of the Swiss energy system. However, it can only be fully effective if solutions are supported by society, the economy and politics. To this end, the relevant stakeholders must be involved in the research work from the outset. Appropriate structures and iterative, dialogue-oriented processes in the spirit of transdisciplinarity (TD) are necessary. This requires the meaningful combination of different scientific disciplines and practical perspectives. Effective knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) is also needed to ensure that research results can be understood, applied and scaled up.

The SWEET Office (in collaboration with partners) supports consortia with various services such as workshops, consulting, toolboxes and studies from the application and evaluation phase to the implementation phase.

Transdisciplinarity

In the field of TD, the SWEET Office works closely with the Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net) of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. A document with practical tips and helpful recommendations is available to introduce the topic (see ‘Documents’).

During the application and evaluation phase, a workshop is organised for each consortium invited to submit a full proposal. Ongoing consortia can request additional support on specific TD topics as needed.

Integration

Transdisciplinary integration combines different scientific disciplines with perspectives from practice. This takes place in an interactive process that creates an expanded consortium that can achieve more than the individual members alone. This requires clear forms of cooperation to enable researchers and practice partners to work together effectively.

See ‘Documents’ for materials from previous workshops on the topic of integration.

Stakeholder mapping

Effective knowledge transfer can only succeed if relevant stakeholders are specifically involved throughout the entire research process.

The SWEET programme has developed a ‘programme-level stakeholder mapping’ with a focus on multipliers and provides methods and recommendations for creating individual stakeholder maps. Consortia can flexibly adapt this template to their needs (see ‘Documents’).

KTT (knowledge and technology transfer)

The approaches developed in the consortia must be prepared in such a way that they can be effectively applied and further developed in practice.

To this end, the SWEET programme provides, among other things, a KTT toolbox that offers consortia new impetus for knowledge transfer and encourages them to try out innovative and impact-oriented methods.

Several times a year, voluntary workshops are also held for the WTT and integration experts of the consortia. Each workshop is dedicated to a specific focus topic and offers experts a space to exchange ideas.

Impact orientation

Impact orientation refers to a way of thinking and working in research and implementation that encompasses the following:

the systematic analysis and involvement of relevant stakeholders
the development of a common preliminary understanding of the problem
the formulation of expected impacts that are relevant to the stakeholders and their perspective on the problem

To help SWEET consortia further strengthen their impact orientation, documents and templates for a five-step impact model are available. This model can be used by both existing and prospective consortia to develop and formulate their expected impacts, to manage and evaluate their progress, and to reflect on and learn about possible impact pathways.

Documents