Over the past two decades, transdisciplinarity has been cited increasingly by policymakers and university actors as a means to reshape learning and research processes to improve society’s potential to tackle grand societal challenges.

Dominant approaches to research quality rest on the assumption that academic peers are the only relevant stakeholders in its assessment. In contrast, impact assessment frameworks recognize a large and heterogeneous set of actors as stakeholders.

Current programme evaluations do not adequately measure the skills and characteristics of individuals and collectives doing transdisciplinary research.

Transdisciplinary research is increasingly seen as critical for advancing climate change adaptation. Operationalizing transdisciplinary research in the global South, however, confronts ingrained cultural and systemic barriers to participatory research.