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Published October 3, 2024 | Version v1
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Nature and society in marine research - Perspectives for interdisciplinary cooperation in the Anthropocene

Authors/Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Universität Hamburg
  • 2. EDMO icon Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
  • 3. ROR icon Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity
  • 4. EDMO icon Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research
  • 5. EDMO icon Constructor University Bremen gGmbH

Description

The human-induced environmental crises are becoming increasingly clear and visible; in the oceans just as on land. The natural and technical sciences in particular have contributed to raising public awareness of the threatened state of the oceans and coasts through large-scale research initiatives. However, the results and recommendations to date have not yet led to effective societal action. This requires a better understanding of the interactions between social and ecological processes. In order to capture these interactions, cooperation between the major disciplinary groups of the natural and technical sciences on the one hand, and the social and cultural sciences on the other must be significantly intensified and professionalized. This cooperation requires structural support and strategically viable implementation in research and training. Against the background of the ongoing UN-Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030), this position paper presents five areas of development for future interdisciplinary marine research and puts them up for discussion: 1. Establishing connectivity between academic scientific cultures; 2. Reforms in training to professionalize interdisciplinary research and teaching; 3. Reforms of marine research organisations; 4. Adaptation of project funding and project organisation and 5. Structural opening into society. In summary, we conclude that interdisciplinary research requires not only the expertise of the individual disciplines but also a reflection on the different scientific cultures in order to identify the conditions and potential for collaboration. Interdisciplinary collaboration then arises from a solution-oriented view of jointly defined problems, so that solutions can be based on both natural and social knowledge. This can be promoted by aligning funding objectives with action knowledge and by taking interdisciplinary needs into account at the operational level (networking and determining phases for the recruitment of potential partners). The development of interdisciplinary excellence, however, also requires a development path for interdisciplinary scientific training, providing the basis for both transdisciplinary and non-academic careers. The establishment of interdisciplinary assessment mechanisms in the various evaluation committees is also important, and these should be multidisciplinary and equipped with interdisciplinary expertise. At the same time, there is a need to expand interdisciplinary competence in the individual research institutions, in turn contributing to the structured expansion of transdisciplinary cooperation with non-academic actors.

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Funding

Volkswagen Foundation
From marine research to social action: perspectives of interdisciplinary cooperation for the UN Ocean Decade 9C558