Sustainable land management and agricultural development in Africa have been a major German research and development funding focus. Funders expect research on these topics to contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. To foster the sustainable transformation of African agri-food systems, the research and development community calls for the integration of local knowledge and gendered realities in research (Cordingley et al. 2015; Ogunyiola et al. 2022; Kingiri 2013; Kristjanson et al. 2017). A transdisciplinary research (TDR) approach is put forward to address this by involving relevant perspectives from various scientific disciplines and societal actors (Brandt et al. 2013; Cordingley et al. 2015; Kristjanson et al. 2017). Moreover, African researchers emphasize the need for more attention to relationship-building with local stakeholders in the research process (Chilisa 2017; Kalinga 2019). They also warn of “research fatigue” (i.e., tiredness from answering lengthy surveys without direct benefit) among local stakeholders in highly frequented rural areas in Africa. Ideally, a TDR approach would offer the framework for the inclusion of societal actors and the co-production of knowledge that benefits local stakeholders to solve real-world problems.
Funding agencies have been responsive to the call for TDR approaches. At the forefront are public funders who are driven by their policy strategies to contribute to sustainable development through their research funding programmes (e.g. the Research for Sustainability (FONA) Strategy of the German Ministry of Education and Research). Different German funding agencies associated with different ministries have been following distinct trajectories in implementing the TDR concept. Over the years, they moved from including the term “transdisciplinarity” in research calls to making more fundamental changes in the design of funding programs. The policy mission of the supervising ministry plays a significant role in defining this trajectory (Schwachula 2019; Jahn et al. 2022). For example, while the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development focuses primarily on solution-oriented research, the German Ministry of Research and Education has a stronger focus on promoting German science and innovation as such. As a result, there is a large diversity in funding frameworks through which the German government funds TDR in Africa.
Although the idea of TDR has been advocated for more than two decades, it is becoming increasingly clear that institutional changes, including in research funding programmes, are needed to enable truly transdisciplinary research (Schneider et al. 2023; Paulavets et al. 2023). The diversity of funding frameworks offered by German funding agencies allows to take stock of the progress made in adapting funding frameworks to the needs of transdisciplinary research. At the same time, funding agencies are strongly willing to adapt and experiment with funding programmes and instruments to support TDR. To capitalize on this momentum, it is crucial to engage in dialogue and learn from each other.
The panel session will reflect on good practices in funding transdisciplinary research in a Global North-South collaborative context. The panel will discuss what innovative measures funders have introduced to enable a transdisciplinary research approach (e.g. seed grants for proposal writing or TDR capacity building as part of the funding programme) and what needs to be done to make such measures more widely available in funding programmes. The panel will draw on their own experiences from a wide range of research projects in Africa funded by Germany and other Northern countries.
The panel brings together two panellists from Africa, who will convey the African science policy and researcher perspective, and two panellists from Germany, who will convey the German funder and researcher perspective. The discussion will be informed by an ongoing dialogue between African and German researchers, practitioners and research funding agencies initiated by the INTERFACES project (INTERFACES – sustainable-landmanagement-africa.net). The dialogue aims to identify and validate good practices in funding transdisciplinary research projects for sustainable development in Africa and to share experiences between funders, researchers, and practitioners.
The panel discussion will provide an opportunity to take stock of new perspectives on funding practices developed during previous workshops and to engage a broad audience interested in TDR in a Global North-South collaborative context. The panellists will discuss some of the innovative measures to adapt TDR funding and explore their impact on integrating local knowledge and gender perspectives in the research conducted. Questions from the audience will further explore the relevance and feasibility of the proposed measures to adapt funding practices.
Description of the Session
Introduction (8 min)
The moderator will introduce each panellist in an elevator pitch style.
Video summarizing the workshops (2 min)
A short video will present visionary ideas on funding TDR in a Global North-South collaborative context from expert workshops held in Germany and Ghana in 2024.
Panel discussion (30 min)
The panellists will engage in a moderated discussion, focusing on their own experiences with innovative measures to change funding practices.
Open discussion (20 min)
The audience will be engaged to evaluate the relevance and feasibility of innovative measures in funding TDR.
