Complex problems require a comprehensive approach

Transdisciplinary action

The problems facing the world today are vast and complex. They can only be defined and addressed through collective effort, drawing across traditional disciplinary expertise and the knowledge held in our lived communities - including the deep knowledge of indigenous and other place-based traditions.

Convergence research focuses on solutions to specific problems by integrating expert knowledge across disciplines¹. Transdisciplinary discovery is broader: it appreciates the interrelatedness of problems and the need to integrate expertise and needs of lived communities with professional knowledge.

Comprehensive thinking

The Institute supports transdisciplinary work by attending to three layers of infrastructure together: cognitive, social, and technological. Much of this thinking resonates with the field of ecology and its applications.

We operationalize this thinking through expansions of the widely adopted biopsychosocial model from behavioral medicine, articulated as Comprehensive Health² for health problems and Comprehensive Climate Change (C3)³ for problems of environmental change.

Importantly, these are problem-focused frameworks rather than disciplinary ones - they organize around aspects of the challenge rather than who studies it or how. Each framework also considers the other: health and environment are addressed in their own terms but remain interrelated, and a single framework can apply to multiple problems within its area. EarthTIES^™ platforms, for example, seek to connect across the related problems of climate change and biodiversity loss.

Cognitive, social, and technological infrastructure

The Transdisciplinary Solutions Institute was founded to support transdisciplinary work through all three layers.

1. 1
   Cognitive
   Frameworks to make sense of complex problems
2. 2
   Social
   Shared understanding, language and collaboration
3. 3
   Technological
   Tools to organize, synthesize and act

Cognitive infrastructure

How we think about complex problems matters. Our ability to conceptualize solutions is fundamentally constrained by our understanding of the problem itself. Problems like environmental change and major chronic disease are inherently complex, shaped by many interacting factors. How we respond must match that complexity. That requires a mental roadmap of the problem. The Institute supports continued development of cognitive frameworks that capture this complexity in ways that move us toward solutions, together.

Social infrastructure

Transdisciplinary work is, fundamentally, about working together. Problems can be addressed most effectively when there is shared understanding and language across stakeholders. A common conceptual framework is necessary for efficient communication and collective response. But a shared framework alone is not sufficient - progress also requires that we have the technology to organize, share, and synthesize knowledge and resources across communities.

Technological infrastructure

We know a lot - from centuries of science and millennia of human lived experience. Both sources can reveal responses to our most vexing problems through greater organization and synthesis of what is known about natural and human systems. In that process, we can also gain new insight into how the world works and what actions to take.

For this to happen we need the technology to synthesize what is known and communicate, collaborate, organize and share resources. Today there are vast opportunities to do this digitally - through collaborative online platforms, shared repositories, and responsible use of artificial intelligence. New technologies that can help are still ahead of us.

The Institute is presently developing TIES^™ platforms designed to support these technological needs in transdisciplinary work, falling broadly under EarthTIES^™ and HealthTIES^™ programs.