Future Africa dialogue explores what it takes to build supportive environments for Transdisciplinary Research
What does it take to create environments where transdisciplinary research can flourish? This was the central question tackled during the latest Transdisciplinary Dialogue hosted by Future Africa at the University of Pretoria on 18 March 2025. The conversation featured Professor Gabriele Bammer — a globally respected thought leader and President of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity — and was focused on practical ways to build enabling conditions for transformational research and teaching.
The session, which was moderated by Dr Hester du Plessis, included contributions from Prof Karina Landman, Dr Calayde Davey, and Mr Jason Oberholster from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Pretoria, and explored how researchers and institutions can work differently: not just to understand complex societal problems, but to act on them.
“One of the things that’s really exciting about transdisciplinarity is that it is young and global. We really have an opportunity to work and build the field together,” said Prof Bammer. “If we are not enjoying what we’re doing, particularly because we are working on such complex, wicked, distressing problems, we’re going to go under. So, we have to find the joy in the process of what we’re doing to mitigate the sadness of the problems that we’re usually working on.”
She also emphasised the importance of building alliances, showing up for opportunities to influence change, and strengthening social licence for transdisciplinary research.
The dialogue focused on five key ideas: thinking systemically and contextually, embracing diversity and discomfort, being politically astute, and finding ways to celebrate both success and failure. Prof Bammer warned against getting stuck in “loving the problem” and encouraged researchers to push beyond analysis and into action.
The session also featured contributions from panellists from the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology at the University of Pretoria:
Prof Landman spoke about how tensions in TD teams often stem from differences in data approaches and disciplinary hierarchies. She also raised concerns around performance measurement systems that favour narrowly defined expertise, noting, “There’s a real need for academic structures to catch up with the value of collaborative, cross-cutting work.” Despite these challenges, she expressed optimism about the growing interest in TD among staff and students in the School of the Built Environment.
Dr Davey showcased how transdisciplinary learning is being embedded directly into the curriculum without needing to alter modules. “We don’t need to rewrite everything, we just need to reframe our purpose,” she said. Her teaching model places the problem at the centre, enabling students from different disciplines to co-learn and co-design solutions for shared societal challenges.
Mr Oberholster described his team’s long-term engagement in the Melusi informal settlement as an example of TD in action. Working alongside communities and students, the project has co-created small but impactful interventions addressing human dignity and wellness. “Our goal is to enable both academic impact and community empowerment,” he said, highlighting how trust, logistics, language, and relationship-building are all essential parts of the process.
The dialogue concluded with a call to continue the conversation, build global alliances, and support each other in shaping a field that is still young, but full of potential. “We need to support each other and celebrate both successes and the lessons learnt from failure. We’re in this together,” said Prof Bammer. “If we want TD to thrive, we must show up, speak up, and support each other — across institutions, disciplines, and continents.”
Prof Gabriele Bammer is the author of the publication Disciplining Interdisciplinarity Integration and Implementation Sciences for Researching Complex Real-World Problems and she developed a useful Framework in Disciplining Interdisciplinarity – Integration and Implementation Sciences (i2S) to foster expertise for tackling complex problems
Watch a recording of the dialogue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gevysEZyjhU
