Fostering reflective impact orientation in transdisciplinary research-A multi-method workshop format.

The primary objective of transdisciplinary research (TDR) is to contribute to the solution of complex 'real-world' problems by integrating heterogeneous knowledge and achieving societal effects. However, establishing a continuous impact orientation during TDR processes remains a challenge, as the necessary tools are not yet sufficiently available. We developed and tested a half-day workshop format for strengthening the impact-oriented project management and research activities of seven TDR projects. Our findings indicate that the reflective impact workshops supported participants in pursuing societal effects systematically. Applying the methodological approach also fosters TDR process qualities such as knowledge integration. Conducted at different project stages, the results can serve as a basis for monitoring and adapting the project design. The reflective approach•includes scientific and non-scientific TDR project team members,•draws on Theory of Change as a conceptual framework and motivates participants to reflect on plausible impact pathways and make implicit assumptions about interlinkages between different forms of societal effects explicit, and•provides results which enable project partners to adjust their project design for greater societal effectiveness.

Societal Effects Are a Major Factor for the Uptake of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Digital Contact Tracing App in The Netherlands.

OBJECTIVES: Our study investigates the extent to which uptake of a COVID-19 digital contact-tracing (DCT) app among the Dutch population is affected by its configurations, its societal effects, and government policies toward such an app. METHODS: We performed a discrete choice experiment among Dutch adults including 7 attributes, that is, who gets a notification, waiting time for testing, possibility for shops to refuse customers who have not installed the app, stopping condition for contact tracing, number of people unjustifiably quarantined, number of deaths prevented, and number of households with financial problems prevented. The data were analyzed by means of panel mixed logit models. RESULTS: The prevention of deaths and financial problems of households had a very strong influence on the uptake of the app. Predicted app uptake rates ranged from 24% to 78% for the worst and best possible app for these societal effects. We found a strong positive relationship between people's trust in government and people's propensity to install the DCT app. CONCLUSIONS: The uptake levels we find are much more volatile than the uptake levels predicted in comparable studies that did not include societal effects in their discrete choice experiments. Our finding that the societal effects are a major factor in the uptake of the DCT app results in a chicken-or-the-egg causality dilemma. That is, the societal effects of the app are severely influenced by the uptake of the app, but the uptake of the app is severely influenced by its societal effects.