Advances(?) in promoting transdisciplinary research at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq): from the prospective lens of Planning to the conservative reality of Management

Abstract

Science and Technology have played an important role in the production of knowledge and the development of technologies to tackle societal emergencies and challenges. Currently, there is a debate regarding the necessity of placing more emphasis on collaborative research methods due to the complexity of societal problems and concerns. Transdisciplinary research entails interaction between researchers from many scientific fields and non-academic actors, identifying and structuring research problems, and determining how research questions relate to real-world problems. The co-production of knowledge that arises from transdisciplinary research is critical for bridging the gap between science and society and generating scientific and social progress. Research funding agencies play an important role in promoting transdisciplinary research, providing financial resources and supporting researchers and institutions that can contribute to the advancement of science and tackle societal issues. However, this approach has not been adopted at the necessary scale and speed, largely due to the conservatism of these organizations, strongly anchored in the linear model of doing science. The aim of this study is to analyze how the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) – an important government agency dedicated to fostering scientific and technological research and training human resources for research activities in Brazil – has been dealing with the issue of transdisciplinarity in its guidelines and strategic orientations, as well as in its instruments and practices for funding research. Therefore, it is an exploratory and qualitative investigation, which makes use of a bibliographical review, desk research and the realization of a structured panel according to the focus group technique with some CNPq’s civil servants involved in the construction and management of programs and public calls for proposals for research, to seek evidences that allows us a greater understanding of how transdisciplinary research has been treated by CNPq. This group dynamics aimed to promote a structured conversation process for sharing ideas and knowledge in order to create collective intelligence. Through it, the participants debated three structured topics on the theme of the research: 1) the technical staff's understanding of the promotion of transdisciplinary research at the CNPq; 2) their perception about the institutionalization of the theme of transdisciplinary research in institutional capacity-building efforts; and 3) challenges and barriers to increasing the CNPq’s contribution to solving socially relevant problems by promoting transdisciplinary co-production. An analysis of the CNPq’s official planning and strategy documents revealed that interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity have been considered key drivers for the institution’s future, and that fostering these approaches would enhance its social impact. However, according to the results of the focus group meeting, although some inter- and transdisciplinary research projects have been supported in recent years, few transdisciplinary calls have been launched, indicating that the institution has taken limited practical and effective actions to promote transdisciplinary co-production. This study contributes to expanding the discussion on transdisciplinarity and tracking its progress in the country, while also encouraging a stronger presence of this approach in the Brazilian National Science, Technology & Innovation System activities and sectoral policies.