As part of the TUM Sustainability Day, Florentine Koppenborg moderated Panal on “Bridging Science and Society: Navigating Sustainability Challenges Together”. She wanted to know: What are best practices in transdisciplinary projects? What are common challenges in working together with multiple stakeholders?
The panelists Dr. Tanja Busse (Journalist and author), Markus Mohl (Head of the Digital Twin Munich), @Prof. Jörg Niewöhner (Chair Anthropology of Science & Technology, TU Munich) and Alexander Dallmus (Journalist and podcaster) engaged in a candid and constructive discussion that highlighted the following key points:
· Humility: everyone needs to be open-minded and show an interest in other stakeholders’ viewpoints and knowledge
· This also means being brave enough to leave one’s comfort zone
· Communication is key and a make-or-break aspect
· Attention to process design and other stakeholders’ institutional constraints
This was a wonderful experience and she is grateful to the panelists and the co-organizers Juliana Gonçalves, Felicitas Sommer, Aisha Aqeel, Spyridon Siafis, Daniel Duecker and Renate Sachse, all young researchers at TUM.