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Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities
Phd/masters course

Co-production of climate adaptation research

Climate change adaptation challenges defy disciplinary scientific study alone. We invite natural, social and humanities scientists to join our intensive course on co-producing climate research.

At Mjølfjell
Sign up for our five day course at Mjølfjell on co-producing climate adaptation research. The course is aimed at PhD and masters students, from any discipline, interested in adaptation.
Photo:
Erik W. Kolstad

Main content

Research, policy and funding institutions demand research collaboration across disciplines, and connecting science with society. But few early-career scientists have expertise in designing such research.

Increasing emphasis is placed on co-producing climate adaptation research through collaboration between scientists across diverse disciplines and interested non-scientists alike. But relatively few climate researchers have the experience and expertise to design transdisciplinary research that co-produces knowledge with users; from municipalities, to farmers cooperatives or the civil defence for example.

Most researchers, irrespective of discipline, are trained in a highly disciplinary way that encourages focus, but at the expense of seeing how their work can relate to other disciplines or knowledges, or the uses for their science. While research and funding institutions call for transdiciplinary and socially relevant scientific projects, most young researchers lack the training and practice necessary to write such research proposals.

Objectives of the course

This course aims to (i) expose participants working on climate (from natural, social or humanities sciences) to ideas of transdisciplinary climate knowledge co-production; (ii) help students relate these ideas to their own research, and (iii) support students in collaboratively designing a climate adaptation research project for review by their peers. An important aspiration is to promote reflection among students and researchers on how their own climate research could connect with other disciplines.

Structure of the course

The course work will be split between multidisciplinary lectures, focusing on what ‘transdisciplinarity’ and ‘co-production’ means for climate researchers, interspaced with group work by the participants. One lecture will be given in the morning and afternoon every day, with ample time for group work in between. We have assembled a multidisciplinary group of highly-regarded instructors, experienced in co-producing cutting-edge adaptation research, from the Universities of Bergen and Leeds, NORCE Klima, NORADAPT and the Norwegian Centre for Climate Services

Participants will be assigned into four groups of five people, from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. On the Monday each group will be assigned a local climate issue, and they will begin working with a municipal practitioner to co-produce a five-page transdisciplinary research project proposal related to this issue, which they will present on the final day for review by other participants.

In addition to reading material, participants will have three main tasks over the week-long course:

1.     For individual participants to reflect on how the ideas in the school could relate to their own research and discuss this in their groups.

2.     To collaboratively design and present a climate adaptation research proposal on a local issue drawing on concepts of transdisciplinarity and co-production.

3.    To peer review the research project ideas of other groups. This course is therefore designed explicitly according to the tenets of transdisciplinary work, particularly that participants are open to ‘extended peer review’ across disciplines, and the open sharing of ideas.

There is no essay or work to be completed following the course.

Costs

Food and accommodation will be covered by our sponsors.

Organizers

Erik Kolstad, NORCE Climate, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), University of Bergen (erik.kolstad@uib.no) and Scott Bremer, Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen (scott.bremer@uib.no)

Sponsors

Hordaland County; University of Bergen; University of Leeds; CET, NORADAPT; NCCS and NORCE

Please read the program and information sheet for more details about the course. Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!