2024 Global Summit Tackles Transnational and Transdisciplinary Research

Attendees of the 2024 Strategic Leaders Global Summit have released their action agenda and guiding principles for conducting transdisciplinary and transnational research for addressing global grand challenges.

The summit was convened in October 2024 at the University of Guadalajara, Mexico, and was co-hosted by CGS and Consejo Mexicano de Estudios de Posgrado A.C. (COMEPO), with financial support from ETS. Hosted by CGS and international partners since 2007, the summit seeks to identify differences and commonalities among leaders in graduate education globally and to develop best practices around shared priorities.

Water management and climate change are examples of the types of grand challenges that will require researchers with multi-disciplinary backgrounds and the ability to work across borders. Global Summit participants sought to build consensus around principles of conducting transdisciplinary and transnational research to foster the types of researchers and frameworks needed to successfully tackle these crucial issues.

The principles and action agenda address how transdisciplinary research can be supported and recognized within a university system that is currently focused on disciplines. They also look at how to foster international collaboration between scholars and the ability to create projects that are not limited to a single national perspective or approach, so they are able to scale an issue over multiple nations or regions.

Visit the Global Summit webpage to learn more about the recommendations for supporting and improving transdisciplinary and transnational research.

Next year’s Global Summit will be held September 28-30 at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Quebec City, Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies. The topic will be, “AI and Emerging Technology to Support Student Success.”