PERSPECTIVE: EXPANDING TRANSDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH TO GRADUATE EDUCATION

To prepare graduate students to address today's complex agri-food systems challenges in research, government, and industry, there is a need for a workforce already trained in collaborative transdisciplinary research skills such as systems thinking, teamwork, and communication across disciplines. This perspective addresses this need through three major themes-assessment, support, and culture-identified from a panel discussion of academic and industry perspectives at the 2023 ASABE Annual International Meeting. Graduate student assessment (Theme 1) may include a diverse portfolio beyond the individual thesis demonstrating collaborative transdisciplinary competencies. Short-term grant-funded programs exist, but there needs to be longer-term programmatic support (Theme 2). Shifting the culture in graduate education towards regular incorporation of transdisciplinary aspects within student training (Theme 3) is a potential scaffold to increase programmatic support (Theme 2) and, ultimately, the adoption of more comprehensive assessment methods (Theme 1).