Science-society models and good quality of co-creation on the focus

Second meeting of the NorQuATrans project network

The 2nd network meeting of the project NorQuATrans took place on Sep 1st and 2nd 2021 in a hybrid format at the Climate Service Center (GERICS) in Hamburg. Together with experts in the fields of Transdisciplinarity, Evaluation and Philosophy of Science, the NorQuATrans team discussed the assumptions, potentials and challenges of science-society engagements for climate services.

The first day started with a welcome address by Prof. Daniela Jacob, director of the Climate Service Center Hamburg (GERICS), in which she discussed future trends of science-society engagements in the field of climate services. She highlighted the importance of transdisciplinary approaches for a sustainable transformation towards a resilient society. The welcome address was followed by a talk by Dr. Susanne Bührer-Topçu from the Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung, Karlsruhe about the evaluation of social impacts in transdisciplinary research. Her contribution shed light on different approaches and indicators to measure research impacts and made a plea for productive interactions at the science-practice interface.

Thorough discussions about the relationship between science-society models, quality criteria and methods for the formative evaluation of transdisciplinary processes took center during the meeting. Ideas have also been discussed about the format and content for a report on these issues. For the project NorQuATrans, this network meeting was particularly helpful to present preliminary results, exchange experiences and plan the next steps in the project.