Transdisciplinary education & competency development
The Athena Institute's education programme trains bachelor’s and master’s students with competencies to facilitate and participate in multi-actor processes. In addition to these core educational programmes, we offer courses that help students develop the personal and social skills core to making social impact - such as Interdisciplinary Community Service Learning, or the The Broader Mind course. Once students have obtained their MSc. we continue supporting them through alumni network events and our Graduate School's PhD programme.
We also support educators in integrating transdisciplinary design principles into courses by offering tools, guidelines and workshops that strengthen competencies for transformation. These versatile instruments as well as customised roadmaps, policy advice and transition pathways further guide transformation-oriented work in academia, policy and practice.
Find our toolbox for educators online.
Embedding reflexive practices
At the same time, we are committed to creating environments in which practitioners and policymakers can acquire, apply, and develop competencies for multi-actor interactions, for example in Living Labs. In other words, we also strive to embed transdisciplinarity in science, policy and practice.
In academia
We work on institutionalising transdisciplinarity in academia by advancing academic theory, developing innovative methodologies and approaches, and publishing our findings open access. In doing so, we enrich the body of knowledge, guide future research, and inform systemic transformation. Furthermore, we advocate for a central role for transdisciplinarity in rethinking universities’ roles in society. We foster this, for example, through our involvement in the European university network ‘Aurora’, and on university level through the appointment of a University Research Chair on transdisciplinary strategies for sustainable development and system transformation.
Furthermore, our STS Making & Doing programme encourages scholars globally to creatively apply and share insights from Science Technology and Society (STS) by leveraging competencies for transdisciplinarity. The Athena Institute is embedding this programme into academic conferences in the field of STS, for example, in the European Association for the Study of Science and Technology conference (EASST-4S) held at VU Amsterdam in 2024.
In policy and practice
Over the years, we've collaborated with a number of government, policy, research, and societal institutions to integrate transdisciplinary practices into policy and practice. Dutch governmental organisations include, the Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL), the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Food and Nature, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Amsterdam Municipality. Dutch care and research organisations include, Youth Protection Amsterdam, the Arthritis Foundation, the Brain Foundation and the Huntington's Association. Non governmental organisations (NGO) include, Wemos, INVOLV, and Food Connects. Companies include, Yakult and Winclove Probiotics. These strategic partnerships enable us to remain at the forefront of developments in relevant fields and domains.
For state-of-the-art insights, theoretical foundations, and practical tools for transdisciplinary approaches for societal transformation - researchers and practitioners can download our book Transdisciplinarity for Transformation.
Empowering like-minded initiatives
Our final step towards sustaining transformations is to collaborate in establishing like-minded initiatives, such as the India Centre for Transdisciplinary Research. This centre advances transdisciplinary practices to improve mental health in India. We offer the centre targeted workshops and trainings, as well as PhD education by building on flows of knowledge and expertise between our academic partner Madras School of Social Work, and NGO partner The Banyan Academy for Leadership in Mental Health. These trainings strengthen the competencies needed to accelerate their endeavours, while the PhD education ensures strong ties with the international literature on transdisciplinarity for transformation.