The role of transdisciplinary
collaboration in thermal science to meetsocietal challenges

Peter StephanTechnische Universitat Darmstadt

Societal Challenges… and R&D funding from a European perspective
HORIZON 2020
The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation


The programme focuses on 7 societal challenges:


Health, demographic change and wellbeing;

Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime
and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy;

Secure, clean and efficient energy;Smart, green and integrated transport;

Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials;

Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective
societies;



Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its
citizens.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/eu/

Societal Challenges… and R&D funding from a European perspective
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Energy

9 energy relevant research
topics were defined:

Funding strategy EU:“A challenge-based approach
will bring together resources andknowledge across different
fields, technologies anddisciplines, including social
sciences and the humanities.”

http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/eu/

Societal Challenges… and the German “Energiewende” and the DFGEnergy transition goals defined by Government & Ministries:
greenhouse gas reductions: 80–95% reduction by 2050 compared to 1990



renewable energy targets: 55-60% share by 2035 (hydro, solar and wind power)energy efficiency: electricity efficiency up by 50% by 2050

The German Science Foundation DFG still follows bottom-up
approaches without defining any priority topics. However,transdisciplinary research proposals are specifically welcome andmore and more pushed.
http://www.bmwi.de/DE/Themen/Energie/Energiewende/energiekonzept.html

Transdisciplinary collaboration… and my personal experience with it# 1: Research Cluster at TU Darmstadt
 founded 2007 and financed until 2014 by German Science Foundation(> 100 scientists from different disciplines, ~ 6.5 Mio. € p.a.) adopted by the University as a multi- or transdisciplinary center from2015 bridging 5 faculties (financial support for some overhead only)

Thermofluidics and Combustion Engineering
MechanicalEngineering

Mathematics

Physics

Chemistry

MaterialScienceTransdisciplinary collaboration… and my personal experience with it# 2: Graduate School at TU Darmstadt
 founded 2012 and financed until 2017+x by German Science
Foundation (~ 35 PhD students, ~ 2 Mio. € p.a.).
 transdisciplinary M.Sc. / PhD programme to “educate tomorrow’s
leading Energy Engineers” involving 10 faculties

MechanicalEngineering

Architecture

Mathematics

Physics

Chemistry

ElectricalEngineering

MaterialScienceGeoScience

Civil
Engineering

Information
Technology+ a little bit of Sociology and Economics

Transdisciplinary collaboration… and my personal experience with it
Very positive experiences
 I understood and learned a lot about otherresearch methods, trends, and possibilities.
 I started understanding the sometimes quite
different thinking and culture of scientists fromdifferent disciplines.
 We clearly work towards broader solutions or themost energy-efficient system solution instead
towards an optimum solution of a small subsystem
disregarding the overall system.

My conclusion here could be:“Transdisciplinary research is mandatory to solve the upcomingenergy problems and it makes my life as a researcher much richer.”Transdisciplinary collaboration… and my personal experience with it
Very negative experiences
 Transdisciplinary projects sometimes do not show
the usual scientific depth from each disciplinary
perspective.
 Misunderstanding between colleagues occurs
more often.
 The evaluation process of transdisciplinary proposals often is
extremely difficult:peers from multiple disciplines are necessary different disciplines have different performance indicators (specific journals, hindex, patents, attracted third-party money, …)
 each discipline has his specific arrogance (physicist about engineer: “he is nota real scientist”; engineer about physicist: “he doesn’t solve real life problems”)
My conclusion here could be:“I should stop pushing myself for transdisciplinary research andproposal writing and concentrate on my narrow expertise. The
success ratio is much higher there and my life would be easier.”Transdisciplinary collaboration… and can we do something to promote it?
“The Dilemma”
 Transdisciplinary collabortion is definitely needed to solve societal
challenges
 It looks straight forward and easy on paper, but it can be hard andsometimes frustrating in real life
Ideas how to promote transdisciplinary collabortion
 Should we organize transdisciplinary sessions on conferences suchas IHTC with e.g. one topic addressed from very different disciplines ?
 Should we start more bottom-up transdisciplinary projects ourselves
instead of waiting for top-down calls which we cannot influence ?
 Can we make performance indicators of different disciplines moretransparent and accepted ?
 …
 … let’s start a discussion!