Big Questions on Embracing Transdisciplinarity in SciCulture
16th April 2019
The world is plagued with ‘wicked problems’, problems that seem impossible at first glance… climate change, education, income disparity, the spread of fake news, the loss of trust in experts—the list goes mind-numbingly on. Overcoming these challenges won’t be easy but can something really be done?
SciCulture is unlikely to save the planet, yet what it does offer is a creative space for artists, researchers, educators and entrepreneurs (both young and established persons) to learn from each other. We want them to establish a network that works well together to achieve tangible goals by using transdisciplinary, entrepreneurial and design thinking approaches in future projects. By attending the SciCulture intensive course, participants will walk away with fresh ideas to launch their own initiatives in the hopes that activities spinning off from this project spread globally.
Why science, arts and entrepreneurship though? Teams of people from different backgrounds working together in the right way are needed to solve complex problems. And like many ideas, the concept grew from an informal chat Dr Edward Duca and Dr Sam Illingworth had over strong coffee in 2015. SciCulture has now excitedly transformed into a Europe-wide collaboration led by four universities and a science communication company. This experimental course will hopefully result in a final product that can be embedded and practiced across many institutions.
The world needs projects like SciCulture as we recognise more and more the power of transdisciplinary approaches to finding solutions. In doing so, we hope we can make the world just a tiny bit better.
This post was brought to you by the Malta Team: Edward Duca, Nika Levikov and Daniela Quacinella.
