Transdisciplinary research is an approach that forms its foundations on addressing wicked problems and is increasingly adopted by large teams. However, when teams do not lay strong foundations for a transdisciplinary approach, projects risk reducing transdisciplinary research to merely implementing methods for increased stakeholder engagement. In understanding how to implement a transdisciplinary approach, it is important that transdisciplinarity is not boiled down to a set of methods or toolboxes anyone can simply apply to a research project. Although such transdisciplinary toolboxes are useful, Breda and Swilling (2019) make a relevant argument that merging concepts of methods and methodology reduces the discourses on how to do transdisciplinarity to a set of methods rather than understanding the principles necessary for designing and executing transformative transdisciplinary processes (van Breda and Swilling 2019). Such capacity for transdisciplinary approaches in diverse teams could tackle the complex problems a project is set to address at a more systemic level.

The lack of easy to grasp guidelines to execute such knowledge co-production hinders meeting mounting commitments to transdisciplinary approaches (Norström et al. 2020) backed by large funding institutions wanting more impactful research (Lawrence et al. 2022). Furthermore, developing an understanding of transdisciplinary knowhow can require effort for researchers interested but inexperienced in transdisciplinary approaches who don’t have the time or capacity to read extensive transdisciplinary literature (Lawrence et al. 2022). As Lawrence et al. (2022) rightfully point out, more guidance documents are needed on such transdisciplinary “process knowledge” for researchers to adopt transdisciplinary approaches effectively. Process knowledge is about knowing when and how to apply context-specific tools needed to carry out transdisciplinary research, rather than knowing the methods themselves, which is only one component (ibid). Efforts have been made to collect, synthesize and translate principles and processes common to transdisciplinary projects for non-experts in the field (Bammer et al. 2023) (Norström et al. 2020) (Lawrence et al. 2022).

In reviewing three papers that synthesize a set of transdisciplinary principles, coupled with three more foundational transdisciplinary papers, this poster presentation presents twelve principles of transdisciplinary research that would be useful for teams to understand. The principles are broken down into three criteria: Project principles, process principles and outcome principles. Project principles are prerequisites for requiring a project to be transdisciplinary. Process principles are principles that are generally followed throughout the course of a project. Outcome principles are what we hope to reach by following a transdisciplinary process. These principles presented form part of a paper on translating and contextualising key transdisciplinary processes and principles in the context of integrated assessment modelling.