Högskolan i Skövde

Conventional research typically adheres to established disciplinary methodologies, whereas transdisciplinary research demands a more flexible and adaptable approach. This paper presents and discusses a work procedure developed and successfully implemented to support collaboration and progress in a large-scale 4-year research project. The work procedure integrates the overall principles from interactive research with the structure of the design research methodology (DRM) framework. The focus here is on the potential of the developed work procedure to support transdisciplinary engineering research. We specifically investigate to what degree the requirements of relevant transdisciplinary research processes are met, i.e., the ability to a) understand and manage complexity, b) incorporate diverse perspectives, c) link abstract and practice-oriented knowledge for implementation and d) develop descriptive, normative, and practical knowledge. Several principles essential to fulfilling the requirements and succeeding with transdisciplinary research were encouraged and supported. Therefore, integrating knowledge from collaborative research, industry-academia partnerships and engineering design could be a promising strategy to strengthen transdisciplinary engineering research. We propose that the suggested work procedure, together with the identified best practices, could serve as support in this context as a transdisciplinary engineering research framework.