Supporting Transdisciplinary Research: Opening the Black Box Through Realistic Evaluation

Transdisciplinary research is frequently promoted as a solution to the major challenges facing contemporary societies, but it is fraught with obstacles. To help teams overcome these challenges, several support approaches have been developed to improve the effectiveness of transdisciplinary research. Despite the proliferation of these approaches, the mechanisms underlying their effectiveness remain poorly understood. It is therefore difficult to know which transdisciplinarity support approaches work, for whom, and under what circumstances.

This project aims to develop and deploy a research-intervention protocol on the effectiveness of transdisciplinary research using a realistic evaluation approach. We will support, in a pilot phase, six transdisciplinary teams associated with our partner organization, the National Institute of Scientific Research (INRS). The intervention will adapt the support strategy developed by the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative. The evaluation will be based on an initial program theory, i.e. A set of causal hypotheses (Context-Mechanism-Outcomes) specifying how supporting transdisciplinary research leads to results.

This project is funded by the Joint Research Initiative for a three-year period (2025-2028) in collaboration with Marie-Luc Arpin, Isabelle Gaboury, Johana Monthuy-Blanc, and Benoit Hogedez.

This content has been updated on November 20th, 2025 at 14 h 50 min.