Leadership for the Future: Co-Designing Solutions for Global Impact with Belmont Forum

Creating Boundary-Spanning Changemakers

Transdisciplinary (TD) research brings together diverse disciplines and communities to tackle complex societal challenges. For more than 20 years, it’s been a bridge between social and natural sciences, connecting theory to practice.

Though TD projects have addressed complex social and environmental issues for decades, why is there now a heightened need for more TD approaches? The research community is experienced in multi- and interdisciplinary work, and many researchers can navigate between fields. But there’s still a gap when it comes to moving from engaging with communities to truly collaborating with them. This isn’t something typically taught in graduate school or in most academic settings.

Today’s globalized world increasingly sees humanity and the Earth as interconnected systems, making it clear that no single country, discipline, or community can solve systemic issues alone. As traditional approaches have proven insufficient, TD is gaining momentum as an approach to addressing the complex problems we face globally.

Photo by Casey Horner on Unsplash

Essential to this is breaking through silos—across disciplines, communities, and knowledge systems.  Research needs to connect to societal needs in meaningful ways. We are at a time of deep societal and systemic change. As noted by Nicole Arbour, Executive Director of The Belmont Forum, there is now “a critical mass of evidence [that] has been accumulated with which we can stand to support this work.”

Developing Transdisciplinary Leadership

Frameworks for TD leadership are being developed and refined to meet these emerging challenges. A recent workshop our team facilitated for the Belmont Forum highlighted the need for a better understanding of TD as a framework. Leadership in this space isn’t about a rigid definition, but about keeping TD dynamic, inclusive, and contextually relevant. More important than defining TD is understanding why it matters. Collaboration between diverse stakeholders is vital, but it’s not enough to just work together. We must also learn how to be together, appreciating each other’s perspectives and approaches.

Designing the Changemaker Skill Set

The skills needed for effective boundary spanning TD work— such as facilitating dialogue, building trust, navigating tensions, managing power dynamics and communicating across cultures—are not commonly taught in academic programs. Without these skills, TD efforts risk doing more harm than good, especially when working with communities that are often best placed to inform research needs and are directly affected by research outcomes.

Photo by Joe Yates on Unsplash

The Belmont Forum has been identifying the critical skills and programs that support TD approaches. Maria Uhle, former Co-chair of the Belmont Forum and Program Director at the US National Science Foundation, emphasizes the need for “boundary-spanning changemakers” who can work across sectors and disciplines to tackle challenges and realize opportunities. These aren’t just researchers; they’re leaders in many sectors, from business to policy, and from many communities who are committed to evidence-based decision-making and meaningful collaboration.  This requires changemakers, either individuals or entire communities, to  approach knowledge systems with enough bravery to fail while trying to get it right, and with the empathy needed to hold the tensions and friction points between perspectives, disciplines, institutional structures, cultures, norms and values. 

Advancing TD Leadership

To support these changemakers, the Belmont Forum, led by the the InterAmerican Institute for Global Change (IAI), the Thailand Science Research Innovation (TSRI)and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), are co-developing a curriculum for the Advancing Leadership Program, launching in 2025. Inclusive Innovation is playing a key role in shaping the Advancing Leadership Program alongside the Belmont Forum. With team members across the globe, particularly in the Global South, Inclusive Innovation brings a unique perspective to this partnership, emphasizing the importance of engaging and collaborating with a broader community—not just researchers and scientists.

This year-long co-design process, which began with a Spark workshop in June 2024, will help shape the program’s framework. Additional workshops in Thailand and South Africa will further refine these efforts.  Our aim is to co-create a leadership curriculum that addresses the nuanced challenges of conducting and leading transdisciplinary research. The goal is to ensure the program equips leaders from various sectors—policy, business, and local communities—with the skills needed to navigate the complexities of TD work. By partnering with communities, especially those directly connected to research outcomes, the program seeks to foster collaboration across disciplines, cultures, and knowledge systems in ways that are both inclusive and practical.

Belmont Advancing Leadership Workshop @ SRI 2024

Recurring themes across these discussions, so far, include trust, shared language, time, and the “liminal space” between where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Each is crucial as we continue to explore TD research and leadership.  It’s not just about producing innovative research, but about creating a deeply inclusive process where diverse voices contribute meaningfully to shaping solutions for global challenges.

Go Further

Understanding transdisciplinary. More on working with the tensions of transdisciplinary research and approaching systemic issues from a systems change perspective.  The leadership required to do transdisciplinary work.

Co-written with Nilufar Sabet-Kassouf