Modes of sustainability-related research in comparison (MONA): Modes of research and their impact on scientific and societal project outcomes - a comparative analysis of 100 third-party funded sustainability-related research projects

近二十年来，新的学术研究模式在诸如“后常态科学”、“知识生产新模式”和“跨学科”等标签下得到了推广。它们的目标是有效地处理与社会相关的问题，通过非科学家的参与加强研究的合法性，并产生“社会稳健”的知识。关键要素包括跨学科合作、关注现实问题以及政府、行政、商业和/或民间社会在研究过程中的参与。以可持续性问题为重点的研究方案特别积极地采用这些新的研究模式。尽管跨学科研究项目经常被单独评估，但迄今为止还没有对实际采用的研究模式以及大量研究项目的学术和社会成果进行比较研究。MONA将是第一个旨在全面比较具有不同研究模式的项目及其产出的研究。实证基础由约100个已完成的第三方资助研究项目提供。为了允许研究模式的高度变化，该样本的一半将包括德国联邦教育和研究部（BMBF）资助计划下的项目，特别强调“社会生态研究”计划（SÖF），而另一半将包括德国研究基金会（DFG）的个人和协调计划下的可持续发展相关项目。本研究将在三个层面上追求研究目标：1。研究模式的地形：根据研究项目的样本，实际使用的研究模式将根据跨学科、关注现实世界问题和非科学家参与等标准进行映射。这也将允许测试来自不同研究资助背景的项目在其研究模式上是否真的不同。研究模式与产出之间的关系：根据一系列假设，将测试不同研究模式在学术和社会产出和结果方面的差异程度，以及学术和社会目标的并行追求在多大程度上有助于在两个领域取得成功。大n研究将分析整个样本，基于文件分析和选择性访谈。一项深入的研究将集中在大约。更详细的八个项目（一半BMBF，一半DFG）。评估方法：通过制定评估研究模式以及学术和社会项目产出和成果的指标，MONA将大大有助于提高（跨学科）研究项目的评估方法。

For about two decades, new modes of scholarly research have been promoted under labels such as 'post-normal science', 'new modes of knowledge production' and 'transdisciplinarity'. They aim to effectively deal with societally relevant problems, to strengthen the legitimacy of research through participation of non-scientists and to produce 'socially robust' knowledge. Key elements include collaboration across scientific disciplines, a focus on real-world problems and the involvement of actors from government, administration, business and/or civil society in the research process. Research programmes focusing on sustainability issues have been particularly active in adopting these new research modes. Whereas transdisciplinary research projects have often been evaluated individually, no comparative study on the actually employed research modes and the scholarly as well as societal outcomes of a larger number of research projects is available to date.MONA will be the first study aimed at a comprehensive comparison of projects with different research modes, and their outputs. The empirical basis is provided by approximately 100 completed third-party funded research projects. In order to allow for a high variation of research modes, half of this sample will comprise projects under funding programmes of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with a particular emphasis on the programme 'Social-Ecological Research' (SÖF), while the other half will comprise sustainability-related projects under individual and co-ordinated programmes of the German Research Foundation (DFG).The study will pursue research objectives on three levels:1. Topography of research modes: Drawing on the studied sample of projects, the research modes actually in use will be mapped in relation to criteria such as interdisciplinarity, focus on real-world problems and the involvement of non-scientists. This will also allow for testing as to whether projects from different research funding contexts actually differ regarding their research modes.2. Relationship between research mode and output: Drawing on a set of hypotheses, the extent to which different research modes differ in their scholarly and societal outputs and outcomes, and the extent to which the parallel pursuit of scholarly and societal goals is conducive to success in both realms will be tested. A large-N study will analyse the whole sample, based on a document analysis and selective interviews. An in-depth study will focus on approx. eight projects (half BMBF, half DFG) in greater detail.3. Evaluation methodology: By developing indicators for assessing research modes and scholarly and societal project outputs and outcomes, MONA will substantially contribute to methodological enhancement of the evaluation of (transdisciplinary) research projects.