Integration in inter- and transdisciplinary research; td conference 2009

At the World Trade Institute, students and researchers work principally in the field of international trade law and economics and in the area of political science, but not only. The purpose of NCCR Trade Regulation is to develop innovative, concrete policy recommendations that reflect a better balance between economic and other regulatory objectives. In other words, the institute has as its business the matter of doing legal and economic analysis, and drafting new policy proposals from the perspective of international trade; all help is welcome, all disciplines are granted equal opportunity to contribute.

In society, the reality is one of a fragmented and amorphous puzzle ambiguously fighting and embracing globalisation. On one side there is an heterogeneously motivated array of policymakers, politicians, consumers and unlabelled folks from all walks of life looking or clamouring for solutions to pressing problems such as climate change, agricultural sustainability, food security, food safety, medical technology, public health, toxic waste disposal, access to knowledge, and nanotechnology, to name a few contemporized issues. On the other side, academics and scholars, be they lawyers, political scientists, economists, natural scientists, engineers, philologists or toxicologists, abscond their intellectual gems in treasure chests vaulted with intellectual ownership rights and an avalanche of esoteric language and duplicitous acronyms. It is not a satisfactory condition. Bridges need to be built between the problems and the solutions.

In this paper I will outline the motivation, ideas and platforms that are being explored at present to create sustainable stakeholder integration that focus on actions that precede, accompany or follow research and contribute to integrate it in society, in particular in the area of policy.