Fourth edition (2024): Taking stock from three decades of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research for social transformations: fostering justice, pluralism and sustainability
Thursday 28 November 2024
Auditorium du Monceau, Musée L, Place des Sciences, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Live-streaming
On 28 November 2024, the fourth edition of the “Conference on Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research for Sustainable Development" will take place in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
This annual conference was initially introduced as part of UCLouvain's “Transition Plan” that aims at “stimulating and supporting the emergence of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research in the field of sustainable development ». Since 2022, the conference is co-organised with the European University Circle U. and the SEED research center from ULiege.
Scope
Both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly required to address ecological and social transition challenges involving interdependent technical, economic or socio-cultural dimensions and a plurality of social actors at the level of society. These social actors include both actors from the NGOs, private enterprises, public administrations, non-university research institutions or engaged citizens. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches mobilize specific disciplinary knowledge from all sectors of the university (Sciences and Technology, Social sciences and Humanities, Health Sciences), but they also attempt to integrate different types of knowledge through processes of co-construction of knowledge between researchers from different disciplines and social actors involved in transition initiatives.
Such research often requires specific support in terms of methodological tools, types of partnerships with social actors or visibility in academic journals and international conferences.
In this context, since 2021, UCLouvain has annually organized a “Conference on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research for Sustainable Development” in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. This conference, initially centered around UCLouvain research teams and their extra-academic partners, quickly opened up to the partner universities of the European University Alliance Circle U. Since 2022, it has been co-organised with Circle U.
Programme
14:00 - 16:00 keynote presentations (also livestreamed)
Topic: stock taking of three decades of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary for social transformations
Keynote 1- Assessing the impacts of urban real-world-labs for sustainability transformations: insights from co-evaluation processes
Karoline Augenstein - Jun.-Prof. Dr. for Policy analysis, transformation research and sustainability, University of Wuppertal, Germany
Keynote 2 - Dealing with contradictions and competing viewpoints in research on place-based transformations.
Olivier Coutard - Research director, CNRS (77447 Champs-sur-Marne), France
Keynote 3 - Experiential knowledge from patient groups in biomedical research and delivery of medical care
Madeleine Akrich - Research director, Sociology of Innovation, Ecole des Mines, Paris, France
Keynote 4 - Whose problems, whose solutions? Addressing tensions between digital transformation and environmental sustainability
Ulrike Felt - Professor of Science and Technology Studies, University of Vienna (Austria)
16:00-18:00 Panel discussion and Interactive workshop (onsite only)
Topic : Defining a research agenda for the science of transformative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research
Methodology: Interactive research seminar with research directors at UCLouvain and international senior researchers
16h-17h Open panel discussion with the key-notes and the coordinators of the UCLouvain seminar on transdisciplinary research methodologies
17h-18h Parallel working groups and plenary discussion based on an evaluation grid for assessing interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary research
18H-20H Networking cocktail