Interdisciplinary Skills Training

Future generations face unprecedented challenges; climate change, resource depletion, socio-economic and health inequalities. To address these challenges researchers will need to push us outside their disciplinary comfort zones to think differently about problems and possibly solutions. In other words, researchers have to work together in inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations. This new way of working requires a different skill set than those taught in disciplinary courses. Therefore, in this training participants will learn and experience the different phases of these complex collaborations. The course is designed for participants to go through the different phases of these complex collaborations: disciplinary grounding, perspective taking, finding common ground and integration. We combine both theory and practise to train collaborative skills. 

List course objectives

The objective of this course is to let participants experience the joys and difficulties of complex inter- or transdisciplinary projects.

List learning goals

After this course participants:

1. Understand the difference between disciplinary, multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations

2. Understand and experienced (and hopefully crossed) their disciplinary boundaries

3. Have experienced taking different perspectives

4. Have applied different listening levels

5. Have made an effort to find common ground with others outside their discipline

6. Have begun to understand the complexity of integration within inter- and transdisciplinary research projects.

7. Have experienced collateral happiness during the process

General Information

Target Group	PhDs and postdocs
Course level	general, post-graduate
Group size	A minimum of 10 and a maximum of 15 participants
Course duration	2 days (given once or twice per year)
Prior knowledge	No
Homework/ self- study	Yes (some reading after the first day)
Language	English
Credit points	0.7 ECTS
Name lecturer(s)	Sylvia Brugman and Anke de Vrieze (from CUCo)
Teaching method	Lectures/ working groups
Venue	Wageningen University campus

Programme

Day 1: Disciplinary Grounding and Perspective-taking
Morning	Introduction Listening skills Disciplinary grounding Perspective taking
Afternoon	Valuing different perspectives Planetary harvest
Day 2: Finding common ground and integration
Morning	Fears and hopes Disciplinary, multi/inter/transdisciplinary research
Afternoon	Embodied learning in collaboration Collaborative project design

Fee

Reduced fee: WGS PhD candidates with a TSP	€300
University fee: Other PhDs, postdocs and WGS staff	€600
External fee: All other participants	€900

Fee includes study and training material, coffee/tea and lunches.

Cancellation condition

You may cancel free of charge up to 1 month before the start of the course. After this date you will be charged with the University fee. Unless: 

• You can find someone to replace you in the course and supply the course coordinator with the name and contact information of your replacement. In this case you will be charged a €50,- cancellation fee.
• You (PhDs and postdocs of Wageningen University) have a valid reason to cancel (illness or death in the family 1st or 2nd degree). In this case you will be charged the reduced fee and your supervisor/PI must send a mail indication the reason for cancellation.

Information

For more information please contact:

paddy.haripersaud@wur.nl, tel: +31317486836 or wias@wur.nl