An Operational Approach for Conducting Transdisciplinary Research at West Point
Transdisciplinary research extends the ideas of single-disciplinary research, multidisciplinary research, and interdisciplinary research to include non-academic participants, an orientation toward application, and a mandate to support action and/or intervention to support the common good. Transdisciplinary research is inherently more complex than other modalities of research because there are more interwoven components that must be synchronized to effectively reach established research goals. An imperative of such research is the involvement of a research lead empowered to synchronize enterprise efforts, including academic and non-academic participants across multiple specialties and disciplines. This paper builds upon Army Design Methodology to describe a framework that enables innovative transdisciplinary research to be conducted at the United States Military Academy (West Point) with the goal that other research institutions may benefit from this West Point faculty exploration.