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，学术研究的新模式被冠以“后常规科学”、“知识生产的新模式”和“跨学科”等标签。它们旨在有效地处理与社会有关的问题，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。关键要素包括跨科学学科的合作，关注现实世界的问题，以及政府、行政部门、企业和/或民间社会的行为者参与研究进程。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通常是单独评估的，但迄今为止还没有对大量研究项目实际采用的研究模式以及学术和社会成果进行比较研究。莫纳将是第一项旨在全面比较不同研究模式的项目及其成果的研究。经验基础由大约100个已完成的第三方资助的研究项目提供。为了允许研究模式的高度变化，这一样本的一半将包括德国联邦教育和研究部（BMBF）资助方案下的项目，特别强调“社会生态研究”（SÖF）方案，而另一半将包括德国研究基金会（DFG）单独和协调计划下的可持续性相关项目。这项研究会在三个层面上达致研究目标：研究模式地形图：根据所研究的项目样本，将根据跨学科性、关注现实问题和非科学家参与等标准绘制实际使用的研究模式。这也将允许测试来自不同研究资助背景的项目是否在研究模式上实际上有所不同。研究模式和产出之间的关系：利用一组假设，不同的研究模式在学术和社会产出和成果方面的差异程度，以及在多大程度上平行追求学术和社会目标有助于在两个领域取得成功。一个大N的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。八个项目（一半BMBF，一半DFG）更详细。评价方法：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，莫纳将大大有助于改进（跨学科）研究项目的评价方法。

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.