Summary

The UNDISCIPLINED project, led by RoRI Senior Research Fellow Helen Buckley Woods, focused on the importance of definitions and descriptions of transdisciplinary research (TDR). It investigated how research funders define TDR, the facets of meaning within these definitions, and what can be learned from the different approaches used, within a range of TDR funding programmes.

Project team

• Helen Buckley Woods, Project lead, RoRI / UCL
• Ismael Rafols, Senior Research Fellow, RoRI / CWTS
• James Wilsdon, Director of RoRI, RoRI / UCL 

Partner organisations

• Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
• Dutch Research Council (NWO)
• Volkswagen Foundation
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)
• Wellcome
• King Baudouin Foundation
• We also acknowledge contributions from the Australian Research Council, the Swiss National Science Foundation and UK Research and Innovation. 

The project in detail

Collaboration between researchers and users in integrating diverse knowledge is not new. However, mono-disciplinary research remains dominant and struggles to tackle complex challenges. Different responses to this include:

• Multidisciplinary approaches draw upon the strengths or expertise of different disciplines, and more effectively join up their findings, but leave disciplinary boundaries (and sometimes hierarchies) intact.

• Interdisciplinary approaches involve the fuller integration of disciplines, to develop potentially novel ways of approaching research questions, recognising that there is a diversity of ways to understand and address particular problems.

• Transdisciplinary approaches not only integrate expertise from across academic disciplines, but also involve users and stakeholders in the design stage, and throughout the research process. In transdisciplinary research, knowledge can come from beyond formal academic disciplines, and insights may be provided through tacit knowledge – as held by local communities, businesses, social movements or practitioners.

All these approaches are important – as is maintaining the health and strength of underpinning disciplines. Following scoping work with RoRI partners, our UNDISCIPLINED project focused on the funding, evaluation, measurement and impacts of transdisciplinary research.

The project explored how research funders define and describe transdisciplinary research, across six funding programmes (seven calls). The project had three evidence strands: 

• A literature review synthesising evidence on TDR funding practices, what TDR is and how it is defined.
• An analysis of seven call for proposal documents investigating how research funders define and describe transdisciplinary research.
• A series of in-depth case studies on how TDR is funded in practice.

Project timeline

UNDISCIPLINED ran for 15 months and it concluded in September 2024. 

Outputs

Reports and papers:

• Woods, Helen Buckley; Rafols, Ismael; Wilsdon, James (2024). UNDISCIPLINED: How do research funders define transdisciplinary research? (RoRI Working Paper No. 12). Research on Research Institute.
• Research on Research Institute (2025). RoRI Insights: Funding Transdisciplinary Research. Research on Research Institute.
• Woods, Helen Buckley (2024). Boundary-crossing projects need bespoke support. Research Professional News.

Talks, workshops & conferences