Seminar with Visting Scholar Dr. Bianca Vienni-Baptista. Can a shift in how we understand interdisciplinarity and its transformative potential enhance its impact on funding and policy? This talk elaborates on three key dimensions through which such a shift can illuminate the connections and disconnections among interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research practices, evaluation systems, funding schemes, and policy processes. The approach emphasizes deeper attention to how meaning is created, negotiated, and contested across diverse contexts and among various societal actors.

Drawing on examples from my current research in the Swiss and European contexts, I present a critical framework for leveraging the impact and transformative potential of interdisciplinary research and policies. Adopting this lens is vital for fostering more inclusive, reflexive, and context-sensitive research collaborations and policymaking. Ultimately, this transformation strengthens the potential for inter- and transdisciplinary research to contribute to meaningful and sustainable societal change.