Using pictures to boost cooperation on climate change research
Several research groups at the ZHAW are working on issues related to climate change. The bottom-up ClimateChange@ZHAW initiative aims to bundle these efforts.
With its wide range of disciplines, the ZHAW is involved in numerous innovative projects in the area of climate change, including projects relating to urban regions, the agricultural sector, the tourism industry, architecture and energy matters in general. To pool this expertise and boost interdisciplinary cooperation within the university, ZHAW lecturers and researchers created the ClimateChange@ZHAW initiative.
Under the initiative, representatives from all of the ZHAW’s Schools add their own networks to create a kind of competence matrix that will make it possible to quickly identify suitable project or teaching partners. To present this competence in an effective way, members of the initiative worked with an agency to come up with six attractive illustrations.
Climate issues require multidisciplinary approach
The pictures feature broad systems in society that are affected by or relevant to climate change – and which are being explored by researchers at the ZHAW. “The fact that there is an overlap between the six pictures shows that certain issues are relevant to more than one system,” says Paula Castro, who heads up the initiative. “It can also be that certain areas of expertise aren’t yet included and still need to be added.” Getting ZHAW staff and students involved is crucial to stimulate exchanges within the university and developing the pictures. This paves the way for tackling the increasingly complex research questions of today and tomorrow using multidisciplinary teams.