Inter and Transdisciplinary Processes — Experience and Lessons Learnt

The aim of this contribution is not to present a theoretical discussion but to report on the procedures of and experience with inter and transdisciplinary processes in a project group, and recommendations resulting from these.’ The Integrated Project, “Strategies and instruments for sustainable development: Bases and evaluation of applications, with special regard to the municipality level” (IP), was a group of nine research projects (cf. List of Projects at the end of this book). Four of these sub-projects were located at the Swiss universities of Bern, Geneva, and Zurich; five were carried out by private institutions. The IP was managed by the Interdisciplinary Centre for General Ecology (IKAÖ) of the University of Bern. The project group was formed in the context of the 2nd stage of the Priority Programme “Environment” of the Swiss National Science Foundation, and funded from 1997 to 2000. The terms of this programme demanded proposals by project groups, in which individual sub-projects were to make a contribution to the objectives of the project group while pursuing their own research objectives.