Transdisciplinary experience in a pilot year of a new Honors Program at the KU Leuven – University of Leuven: building a team, developing and improving a transdisciplinary project through addressing a challenge on HIV drug resistance in Africa

Challenge: A way to understand and instruct on best practices for delivering and accepting HIV drug treatments in Africa. During this pilot year of the "Transdisciplinary Insights" Honors Program at the KU Leuven – University of Leuven, together with the academic staff, students have developed a methodology for working on a transdisciplinary challenge. The pilot project was structured initially in three (partially overlapping) steps: building a transdisciplinary team, building a transdisciplinary project, and gathering knowledge. The Actor Constellation, Three Types of Knowledge and Ten Reflective Steps exercises (www.transdisciplinarity.ch/toolbox; Pohl et al, 2017) and 'complexity and collaborative knowledge co-creation' (Marc Craps) workshops were very helpful for building a team and identifying gaps and steps to be undertaken to solve the challenge. It also boosted students' creativity and team-working skills. In the coming years, more challenges will be addressed simultaneously, each by a dedicated student group, coach and stakeholders.status: Published onlin