Societal Transformation: Transformation Research, Transformational Research, Research Transformation: A Novel Framework from RWTH Aachen University

AbstractThe global environmental crisis, technological developments, the COVID-19 pandemic, and ongoing economic and political globalization are just a few of the developments that are massively increasing the pressure for transformation on regions, companies, and society as a whole. In addition, the digital age is accelerating transformation processes that are already underway. This introductory article addresses these developments and presents a new framework for transformation research and practice that has been developed and already validated by researchers of the RWTH Aachen University. The RWTH way includes inter- and transdisciplinary approaches from many disciplines, looking at technological and societal change from different perspectives. A distinction is made between analysis, i.e. research on understanding societal transformation processes, impact, i.e. transformational research that aims at real-world impacts, and research transformation, i.e. paradigm changes in research methods and processes that increase the degree of innovation and the impact of research.