Across the globe there is increasing recognition that many problems of society, the environment, economies, and population health have complex inter-related causes and require action from many directions. These issues are often called “wicked problems”. There is increasing recognition by both national and international agencies that understanding and addressing these problems requires expert knowledge from many academic disciplines as well as the expertise of people from government, industry and local communities. Transdisciplinary practice is not just communication between these groups but the ability to bring together the diverse perspectives in ways that enable us to understand complex problems in new ways that stimulate new thinking and collaboration about solutions.

Traditionally higher education has involved movement into increasingly specialized knowledge areas rather than into broad, pro-active engagement with many disciplines and stakeholders. Many people and governments have recognized, however, that the workforce of the future requires a different set of skills which relate to transdisciplinary practice. This necessitates new approaches to higher education that help learners develop the necessary capabilities for working in transdisciplinary partnerships. This, in turn, requires academic institutions and their staff to develop new approaches and skills for instruction, preferably approaches that are themselves transdisciplinary. This is the focus of this project.