What are ITS

Inter- and transdisciplinary sessions (ITS) link disciplines within the Earth, planetary and space science research to address specific (and often new) problems or link these disciplines to other disciplines (e.g. social, economic and political sciences) to address societal challenges.

In organizing sessions at the EGU General Assembly, we use the following terms:

  1. Disciplinarity divides a research field into specific domains characterized by relatively self-contained interactions. Disciplinary sessions at the EGU General Assembly address basic and fundamental questions about Earth, planetary and space science research.
  2. Multidisciplinarity draws on knowledge from several disciplines, in which the disciplines collaborate from their own perspective but stay within their field. This allows, for example, addressing interactions among disciplines.
  3. Interdisciplinarity looks for links between disciplines in a coordinated and coherent effort, with the aim of creating new approaches (e.g. by using (adapted) methods of discipline "A" to address questions related to discipline "B") that would not be possible if handled separately within the respective discipline(s).
  4. Transdisciplinarity transcends traditional boundaries of disciplines by addressing socially relevant problems by integrating disciplinary paradigms or conducting participatory research. Typically, transdisciplinarity encompasses stakeholders and collaborators from within and beyond the academic world. These can include e.g. indigenous/local knowledge, art and policy-making.

At the EGU General Assembly:

  1. Disciplinary sessions are organized within a single Programme Group (PG), and multidisciplinary sessions are typically organized by a leading PG, with possible co-organization with other PGs (see Conveners guidelines and rules for further information on organizing regular scientific sessions).
  2. Inter- and transdisciplinary sessions are organized within the ITS PG (see guidelines here below).

Submission of session proposals to the ITS PG is possible during the public call-for-sessions (see deadlines and milestones table).

Conveners should follow the general Convener guidelines and rules.

Submitting a session to the ITS Programme Group

  1. Conveners should place their proposal in the ITS Programme Group. There is no automatic roll-over of sessions or ITS themes from one year to another.
  2. Conveners should ensure that their session’s description address the inter- or transdisciplinary nature of the ITS type of sessions, as described above. They should call for contributions that are inter- or transdisciplinary.
  3. In the session proposal submission form, conveners should:
    1. define a title and a short description (200–2500 characters);
    2. provide a short justification of the inter- or transdisciplinary nature of the session;
    3. indicate a leading Programme Group (PG) for their session;
    4. indicate other PGs that can be associated with the session (co-organization requests; see the general Convener guidelines and rules).
  4. The ITS PG Chair will review each session proposed in the ITS PG, with the support of the associated leading PG Chair. They will review the eligibility of the sessions proposed as an ITS, based on the session's description and the ITS justification statement.
  5. Conveners will be notified of the results of the review at the end of the call-for-session proposals (end of October).
  6. Selected sessions will be hosted in the ITS Programme Group.
  7. Sessions that are deemed disciplinary or multidisciplinary instead of inter- or transdisciplinary will be transferred as a regular session to be considered in the associated leading PG programme.

Based on the accepted sessions for the ITS programme, the ITS themes will be defined. They will harmonize and bring together sessions that deal with similar main themes in inter- or transdisciplinary Earth, planetary and space science research.

Contact

ITS Programme Group Chair: Viktor Bruckman, its@egu.eu