Development of Transdisciplinarity Among Students Placed with a Sustainability for Health Research Project

Transdisciplinary education on sustainability for health has been primarily developed in high-income countries, yet the need in countries with limited research and human resource investments remains urgent. Little empiric documentation of the facilitators and barriers to transdisciplinary learning in such countries has been described. We assessed transdisciplinary learning among students of different disciplines collaborating with an Ecuadorian sustainability for health research project. Six undergraduate students from four different disciplinary backgrounds were incorporated through work–study agreements with provincial university academic supervisors. Learning was fostered and monitored through participant observations by a field supervisor. Students’ learning was evaluated through subsequent in-depth interviews and visualization methods. Academic supervisor key informant and co-investigator observations aided triangulation. Qualitative data were analyzed using indicators of transdisciplinary thinking. Principal factors facilitating transdisciplinary learning were interaction with social actors, the integration of work with other disciplines, the use of alternative research techniques and methods, and the constant support of the field supervisor. Inhibiting factors included the existence of rigid academic rules, lack of training of the academic supervisors in diverse research methods, and social pressures to implement unidisciplinary foci. At the end of their link with the project, students had developed both cognitive outcomes and attitudinal values relevant to sustainable development for health. In countries with limited investments in research and human resources development, transdisciplinary approaches with social actors and engaged researchers can sensitize new professionals training in traditional academic contexts to the ecological–social–health problems faced by poor majorities and encourage their subsequent work on sustainability for human health.     

Synthesis: Sharing Ecological Knowledge—The Way Forward

Knowledge sharing between scientists and nonscientist stakeholders is necessary to implement research findings in an appropriate and effective manner within the context of the environment and conservation sectors. Yet scientific ecological knowledge is rarely shared and transferred effectively. This special section has addressed a number of opportunities and barriers to the improvement of scientific communication and knowledge transfer with respect to environmental management in tropical settings. A main challenge is seen in creating a research 'impact-metric' system, which is fundamental to foster knowledge sharing with institutional research incentives. Partnering with local institutions and research centers as well as participatory research methods will promote effective knowledge exchange. Research relevance and impact will be improved by matching interdisciplinary research with local capacity building and support through research activities. We conclude that training the next generation of tropical biologists through more effective knowledge sharing will be crucial to the long term success of scientifically based environmental management in tropical regions.     

Using learning networks to understand complex systems: a case study of biological,geophysical and social research in the Amazon

Developing high‐quality scientific research will be most effective if research communities with diverse skills and interests are able to share information and knowledge, are aware of the major challenges across disciplines, and can exploit economies of scale to provide robust answers and better inform policy. We evaluate opportunities and challenges facing the development of a more interactive research environment by developing an interdisciplinary synthesis of research on a single geographic region. We focus on the Amazon as it is of enormous regional and global environmental importance and faces a highly uncertain future. To take stock of existing knowledge and provide a framework for analysis we present a set of mini‐reviews from fourteen different areas of research, encompassing taxonomy, biodiversity, biogeography, vegetation dynamics, landscape ecology, earth‐atmosphere interactions, ecosystem processes, fire, deforestation dynamics, hydrology, hunting, conservation planning, livelihoods, and payments for ecosystem services. Each review highlights the current state of knowledge and identifies research priorities, including major challenges and opportunities. We show that while substantial progress is being made across many areas of scientific research, our understanding of specific issues is often dependent on knowledge from other disciplines. Accelerating the acquisition of reliable and contextualized knowledge about the fate of complex pristine and modified ecosystems is partly dependent on our ability to exploit economies of scale in shared resources and technical expertise, recognise and make explicit interconnections and feedbacks among sub‐disciplines, increase the temporal and spatial scale of existing studies, and improve the dissemination of scientific findings to policy makers and society at large. Enhancing interaction among research efforts is vital if we are to make the most of limited funds and overcome the challenges posed by addressing large‐scale interdisciplinary questions. Bringing together a diverse scientific community with a single geographic focus can help increase awareness of research questions both within and among disciplines, and reveal the opportunities that may exist for advancing acquisition of reliable knowledge. This approach could be useful for a variety of globally important scientific questions.     

Engagement as co‐constructing knowledge: A moral necessity in public health research

Undertaking engagement in public health research is ethically essential. There is a growing emphasis on practicing engagement as the co‐construction of knowledge, which goes beyond other common forms of engagement in health research practice: consulting and informing. Taking such an approach means researchers jointly construct knowledge with research users and beneficiaries; all parties design and conduct research together and share decision‐making power. This article makes the normative argument that such engagement is necessary to achieve the foundational moral aims of public health research—building relations of equality and addressing the health needs of those considered disadvantaged—which reflect the field's underlying commitment to social justice. It next identifies and discusses three ways in which co‐constructing knowledge advances those moral aims: by facilitating self‐determination, supporting individuals’ right to research, and maximizing social knowledge to address cognitive and epistemic injustice. Objections to the arguments presented in the article are then articulated and defended against.     

Ecoinformatics: supporting ecology as a data-intensive science

Ecology is evolving rapidly and increasingly changing into a more open, accountable, interdisciplinary, collaborative and data-intensive science. Discovering, integrating and analyzing massive amounts of heterogeneous data are central to ecology as researchers address complex questions at scales from the gene to the biosphere. Ecoinformatics offers tools and approaches for managing ecological data and transforming the data into information and knowledge. Here, we review the state-of-the-art and recent advances in ecoinformatics that can benefit ecologists and environmental scientists as they tackle increasingly challenging questions that require voluminous amounts of data across disciplines and scales of space and time. We also highlight the challenges and opportunities that remain.     

Let us go green…

The field of environmental science and technology is highly interdisciplinary. It brings together knowledge and expertise from variety of disciplines ranging from different aspects of ecology to chemistry, microbiology to statistics, soil science to biology and water management to toxicology. Environmental or atmospheric scientists are not the stereotype alarmists who press the siren button of ‘global warming’ but they strive and employ transdisciplinary knowledge to develop science and technology based strategy to address the sustainability of air, water and soil. Moreover, the responsibility of protecting the environment could not be solely allocated onto the shoulder of an environmental scientist, but in order to preserve and safeguard the air that we breathe, the water that we drink and the land we step in, each of us the chemists, the physicists, and the biologists should strategically design our research in a more environmentally friendly manner or employing green methods.     

Perspectives on the formation of an interdisciplinary research team

As research funding becomes more competitive, it will be imperative for researchers to break the mentality of a single laboratory/single research focus and develop an interdisciplinary research team aimed at addressing real world challenges. Members of this team may be at the same institution, may be found regionally, or may be international. However, all must share the same passion for a topic that is bigger than any individual’s research focus. Moreover, special consideration should be given to the professional development issues of junior faculty participating in interdisciplinary research teams. While participation may be “humbling” at times, the sheer volume of research progress that may be achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration, even in light of a short supply of grant dollars, is remarkable.     

The Next Direction for Primatology? A Commentary on Setchell (2013)

Primatologists were asked to submit their “ideas for the Big Questions that remain unanswered in Primatology” and, from this, Setchell (2013) grouped the 170 responses into 11 broad themes. This exercise created a valuable tool that can help primatologists identify both the “missing gaps” and current broad overarching themes within our field. In this commentary, we offer our perspective on the methodology and results of this survey. By considering the 11 themes more holistically, primatologists can more easily address a broader range of questions, methods, and outcomes for their research endeavors and conservation efforts. Ultimately, the results of this survey should enable researchers and policymakers to recognize gaps in our knowledge and plan how to proceed with new research initiatives and funding applications. The identified themes should also provide a reference point for new avenues of investigation, and we are hopeful that this list can encourage interdisciplinary research if primatologists consider the overlaps across the themes. However, as Setchell noted, as some key areas of research were omitted from the list, the 11 themes should be used as a tool for guidance in expanding our research horizons and not as a template for the minimum of what is required.     

The case for research integration,from genomics to remote sensing,to understand biodiversity change and functional dynamics in the world's lakes

Freshwater ecosystems are heavily impacted by multiple stressors, and a freshwater biodiversity crisis is underway. This realization has prompted calls to integrate global freshwater ecosystem data, including traditional taxonomic and newer types of data (e.g., eDNA, remote sensing), to more comprehensively assess change among systems, regions, and organism groups. We argue that data integration should be done, not only with the important purpose of filling gaps in spatial, temporal, and organismal representation, but also with a more ambitious goal: to study fundamental cross‐scale biological phenomena. Such knowledge is critical for discerning and projecting ecosystem functional dynamics, a realm of study where generalizations may be more tractable than those relying on taxonomic specificity. Integration could take us beyond cataloging biodiversity losses, and toward predicting ecosystem change more broadly. Fundamental biology questions should be central to integrative, interdisciplinary research on causal ecological mechanisms, combining traditional measures and more novel methods at the leading edge of the biological sciences. We propose a conceptual framework supporting this vision, identifying key questions and uncertainties associated with realizing this research potential. Our framework includes five interdisciplinary “complementarities.” First, research approaches may provide comparative complementarity when they offer separate realizations of the same focal phenomenon. Second, for translational complementarity, data from one research approach is used to translate that from another, facilitating new inferences. Thirdly, causal complementarity arises when combining approaches allows us to “fill in” cause–effect relationships. Fourth, contextual complementarity is realized when together research methodologies establish the wider ecological and spatiotemporal context within which focal biological responses occur. Finally, integration may allow us to cross inferential scales through scaling complementarity. Explicitly identifying the modes and purposes of integrating research approaches, and reaching across disciplines to establish appropriate collaboration will allow researchers to address major biological questions that are more than the sum of the parts.     

Circular economy: A new research field?

Action to pursue the circular economy (CE) transition is burgeoning in the government and the private sector. Does this action signal that CE is a distinct field of research with a unique disciplinary identity? This article argues that CE has reached field status, through its own epistemic communities characterized by increasingly shared methodological perspectives and normative ideals, and through institutionalized knowledge development through research journals and authority structures. The recent growth of CE research points toward more contextualized and nuanced operationalizations of the concept, evidence that the field is approaching a threshold state of maturity. Drawing on observations from academic literature and discussions with researchers and experts, we trace the process by which CE has arrived at the status of a field. The article concludes with reflections on research directions.     

Graduate education and the role of the physical anthropologist in biomedical teaching and research

There is a place for the physical anthropologist in biomedical teaching and research because of the special and unique skills possessed by this individual. However, eventual success in the health sciences environment requires the student to obtain the knowledge and background for functionally oriented teaching and research. Students interested in a biomedical teaching and research career must prepare themselves methodologically and theoretically. This requires: (1) teaching qualifications, (2) an increased emphasis on methodology and technology, (3) an increased emphasis on research and experimental design, (4) appropriate interdisciplinary courses which provide the background for both teaching and research, (5) increased interaction with graduate faculty active in research, and (6) the latitude to adapt the graduate program to meet these specific needs. Students who finish their graduate training with a marketable skill, and who can apply their unique talents to a specialized area, will have broad appeal in the job market and will considerably strengthen their career opportunities.     

Building the contractile ring from the ground up: a lesson in perseverance and scientific creativity

This contribution to the Festschrift for Professor Thomas (Tom) D. Pollard focuses on his work on the elucidation of the protein organization within the cytokinetic nodes, protein assemblies, precursors to the contractile ring. In particular, this work highlights recent discoveries in the molecular organization of the proteins that make the contractile machine in fission yeast using advanced microscopy techniques. One of the main aspects of Tom’s research philosophy that marked my career as one of his trainees is his embrace of interdisciplinary approaches to research. The cost of interdisciplinary research is to be willing to step out of our technical comfort zone to learn a new set of tools. The payoff of interdisciplinary research is the expansion our realm of possibilities by bringing new creative tools and ideas to push our research program forward. The rewarding outcomes of this work under Tom’s mentorship were the molecular model of the cytokinetic node and the development of new techniques to unravel the structure of multi-protein complexes in live cells. Together, these findings open a new set of questions about the mechanism of cytokinesis and provide creative tools to address them.     

Improving the dialogue between public health and ecosystem science on antimicrobial resistance

The concept of health has evolved markedly from a bio-medical, mechanistic model to include an interdisciplinary perspective where human, animal and ecosystem health are integrated. One Health, EcoHealth and Planetary Health are examples of approaches to health advocating collaboration and interdisciplinarity at multiple levels. In practice, successful integration has been challenging and in particular, understanding of the ecosystem component of health lags behind the human and animal components. Antimicrobial resistance is an important threat to human health, which develops, is maintained and transmitted at the human–animal–environment interface. While the human and livestock components of resistance are well understood, this is not the case for the ecosystem component. This gap in knowledge leads to a poor representation of the environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance in key policy documents and in interdisciplinary work around this issue. We interviewed a group of leading researchers in public health and ecology to explore their perceptions on the integration of ecosystem and public health research in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Experts from both fields considered that research on antimicrobial resistance is only beginning to consider ecosystems. They highlighted various barriers that have contributed to limited integration, such as conceptual barriers, and a lack of knowledge translators as facilitators. Better interdisciplinary integration is needed to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. Improving the dialogues between the disciplines is a necessary first step in this process. Greater engagement of ecologists is needed to build a more complete understanding of the role of ecosystems in human health, and identify how human interactions with ecosystems can both contribute to, and restrict, the development of antimicrobial resistance.     

Acceptance and perceived barriers of implementing a guideline for managing low back in general practice

Background

There is considerable interest today in shared decision-making (SDM), defined as a decision-making process jointly shared by patients and their health care provider. However, the data show that SDM has not been broadly adopted yet. Consequently, the main goal of this proposal is to bring together the resources and the expertise needed to develop an interdisciplinary and international research team on the implementation of SDM in clinical practice using a theory-based dyadic perspective.

Methods

Participants include researchers from Canada, US, UK, and Netherlands, representing medicine, nursing, psychology, community health and epidemiology. In order to develop a collaborative research network that takes advantage of the expertise of the team members, the following research activities are planned: 1) establish networking and on-going communication through internet-based forum, conference calls, and a bi-weekly e-bulletin; 2) hold a two-day workshop with two key experts (one in theoretical underpinnings of behavioral change, and a second in dyadic data analysis), and invite all investigators to present their views on the challenges related to the implementation of SDM in clinical practices; 3) conduct a secondary analyses of existing dyadic datasets to ensure that discussion among team members is grounded in empirical data; 4) build capacity with involvement of graduate students in the workshop and online forum; and 5) elaborate a position paper and an international multi-site study protocol.

Discussion

This study protocol aims to inform researchers, educators, and clinicians interested in improving their understanding of effective strategies to implement shared decision-making in clinical practice using a theory-based dyadic perspective.     

Beyond Just Research: Experiences from Southern Africa in Developing Social Learning Partnerships for Resource Conservation Initiatives

There is a well-acknowledged communication or knowledge gap between scientists and decision-makers. Many scientists who take on the challenge of narrowing this gap operate on the understanding that their role is to communicate their findings in a one-way flow of information: from science to decision-makers. However, to be effective scientists must engage in an ongoing social learning process with decision-makers, and regard themselves as facilitators, and also as one among many stakeholders who have valid and important ecological knowledge. The developing world poses some particular challenges in this regard, specifically in terms of the large number of local level subsistence resources users who are important de facto decision-makers. We examine four natural resource management case studies from South Africa that differ in spatial scale and complexity, ranging from a single village to a whole biome. We distil seven lessons to help guide development of social learning processes and organizations in similar situations relating to natural resource planning and management. The lessons pertain to: maintaining 'key individuals' within social learning processes; the role of researchers; the formulation of research questions that social learning processes require adaptive long-term funding and capacity support; that local resource users are key decision-makers in developing countries; some perspectives on knowledge; and the need to measure research success.     

Questions of mass extinction

Earth's biodiversity is being overtaken by a mass extinction which, if allowed to proceed unchecked, could well eliminate between one quarter and one half of all species. Our conservation responses must be science-based if we are to address the problem in its full scope and with most productive use of conservation resources. Yet our scientific understanding of the impending mass extinction is inadequate in many salient respects. We have only a rudimentary grasp of the number of species at risk, of biodiversity depletion processes, of island biogeography in practice, and of evolutionary consequences, to cite but a few leading questions. The same applies to the issue of the most efficient strategies to confront the conservation challenge. Worse, there is scant evidence (due in part to gross lack of funding) of a comprehensive and coordinated campaign to mount a research effort of scope to match the problem. The paper broaches ten key questions that warrant urgent attention.     

Prevalence of GB virus type C in urban Americans infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1

Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) and HTLV-2 were among the first human retroviruses discovered in the early 1980's. The International Retrovirology Association is an organized effort that fostered the efforts of scientists and clinicians to form interdisciplinary groups to study this group of retroviruses and their related diseases. The Association promotes excellent science, patient education, and fosters the training of young scientists to promote "bench-to-bedside" research. The International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV and Related Viruses sponsored by the Association supports clinicians and researchers in the exchange of research findings and stimulation of new research directions. This years conference will be held from June 22 to 25, in Montego Bay, Jamaica http://www.htlvconference.org.jm/. Since its inception in 1988, these conferences have provided a highly interactive forum for the global community of HTLV scientists. This is of particular importance as HTLV research enters its third decade and a new generation of scientists takes over this important work. Many of the scientists attending the meeting will be from developing countries where HTLV is endemic, consistent with the history of international collaborations that have characterized HTLV research. The International Conference on Human Retrovirology provides a unique opportunity for researchers of all disciplines interested in HTLV infections to meet their peers and to address the questions facing clinicians and scientists who study retroviruses, like HTLV.     

Community-based knowledge transfer and exchange: Helping community-based organizations link research to action

Background

Community-based organizations (CBOs) are important stakeholders in health systems and are increasingly called upon to use research evidence to inform their advocacy, program planning, and service delivery efforts. CBOs increasingly turn to community-based research (CBR) given its participatory focus and emphasis on linking research to action. In order to further facilitate the use of research evidence by CBOs, we have developed a strategy for community-based knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) that helps CBOs more effectively link research evidence to action. We developed the strategy by: outlining the primary characteristics of CBOs and why they are important stakeholders in health systems; describing the concepts and methods for CBR and for KTE; comparing the efforts of CBR to link research evidence to action to those discussed in the KTE literature; and using the comparison to develop a framework for community-based KTE that builds on both the strengths of CBR and existing KTE frameworks.

Discussion

We find that CBR is particularly effective at fostering a climate for using research evidence and producing research evidence relevant to CBOs through community participation. However, CBOs are not always as engaged in activities to link research evidence to action on a larger scale or to evaluate these efforts. Therefore, our strategy for community-based KTE focuses on: an expanded model of 'linkage and exchange' (i.e., producers and users of researchers engaging in a process of asking and answering questions together); a greater emphasis on both producing and disseminating systematic reviews that address topics of interest to CBOs; developing a large-scale evidence service consisting of both 'push' efforts and efforts to facilitate 'pull' that highlight actionable messages from community relevant systematic reviews in a user-friendly way; and rigorous evaluations of efforts for linking research evidence to action.

Summary

Through this type of strategy, use of research evidence for CBO advocacy, program planning, and service delivery efforts can be better facilitated and continually refined through ongoing evaluations of its impact.

     

Policy Language in Restoration Ecology

Relating restoration ecology to policy is one of the aims of the Society for Ecological Restoration and its journal Restoration Ecology. As an interdisciplinary team of researchers in both ecological science and political science, we have struggled with how policy‐relevant language is and could be deployed in restoration ecology. Using language in scientific publications that resonates with overarching policy questions may facilitate linkages between researcher investigations and decision‐makers' concerns on all levels. Climate change is the most important environmental problem of our time and to provide policymakers with new relevant knowledge on this problem is of outmost importance. To determine whether or not policy‐specific language was being included in restoration ecology science, we surveyed the field of restoration ecology from 2008 to 2010, identifying 1,029 articles, which we further examined for the inclusion of climate change as a key element of the research. We found that of the 58 articles with “climate change” or “global warming” in the abstract, only 3 identified specific policies relevant to the research results. We believe that restoration ecologists are failing to include themselves in policy formation and implementation of issues such as climate change within journals focused on restoration ecology. We suggest that more explicit reference to policies and terminology recognizable to policymakers might enhance the impact of restoration ecology on decision‐making processes.