Open Access

Hochschulübergreifende transdisziplinäre Forschungsverbünde bieten die Möglichkeit, Erfahrungen, Wissen und Kompetenzen komplementär zu bündeln und somit Synergien zu schaffen, die zur Lösung gesellschaftlicher Fragestellungen genutzt werden können. Zugleich gehen Kooperationen in dieser Konstellation mit einem höheren Aufwand einher und erfordern entsprechende Abstimmungsprozesse. Gerade in den Phasen der Planung und Antragsstellung eines solchen Forschungsverbunds sowie zu dessen Start und dem damit einhergehenden Onboarding der Verbundmitglieder und Praxispartner*innen werden signifikante Strukturen und Rahmenbedingungen für eine erfolgreiche Verbundarbeit etabliert. Ausgehend von der Fragestellung "Welche Informationen hätten sich die Projektbeteiligten bereits zu Beginn des Forschungsvorhabens gewünscht?" bündelt dieser Leitfaden die Erkenntnisse aus der Antrags- und Onboardingphase des Forschungsverbunds InNoWest, um sie Interessierten als Orientierung zur Verfügung zu stellen. Der Leitfaden richtet sich dabei besonders an Wissenschaftler*innen, Mitglieder der Hochschulleitungen und Koordinationsteams, die vergleichbare Verbundprojekte konzipieren oder die ihre Rolle in einem solchen Verbund besser verstehen und ausgestalten wollen. Aber auch kleinere inter- und transdisziplinär arbeitende Forschungsprojekte können bei der Beantragung und dem Onboarding ihrer Projekte von den hier zusammengetragenen Erfahrungen von InNoWest profitieren.

Research at higher education institutions (HEIs) is increasingly expected to address societal problems. In this context, transdisciplinary research practice is often referred to as a novel co-creative mode of research. However, collaboration with actors from outside the scientific system in transdisciplinary research projects requires specific competences. The article presents the formats for competence development in transdisciplinary research developed as part of the InNoWest joint research project, as well as the results of their formative evaluation. It outlines the potential and limitations of continuing professional development during project work, and reflects on the possibilities for the institutionalised development of transdisciplinary competences at HEIs. Drawing on the experiences of the German InNoWest joint research project, the article elucidates the ambivalence between transdisciplinary research as a mode of inquiry and the qualification and excellence criteria of scientific institutions, which are often based on technical expertise. The article further examines the conditions required to establish transdisciplinary research within German HEIs.

This contribution proposes an unconference at DH 2025 to strengthen the exchange between visualization research and digital humanities (DH) communities. Building on the DH 2023 workshop on visualization literacy and research opportunities, we aim to create a participant‑driven space where DH researchers, educators, and practitioners can learn about visualization practices and co‑develop a shared research agenda tailored to humanities needs. The unconference has three goals: introducing DH practitioners to the VIS4DH community and resources; enabling attendee‑guided dialogue around their own visualization questions and challenges; and strategically mapping open questions and future directions, including the option of forming an ADHO Special Interest Group.

Provocation has long been used in HCI to challenge audiences’ assumptions about technology. However, designers and researchers themselves operate within implicit assumptions that shape the technologies they imagine - invisible constraints that limit what futures we design for. In this paper, we introduce self-provocation as a complementary concept that turns the disruptive impulse inward to make designers’ familiar thinking patterns strange through self-imposed constraints. Our approach builds on avant-garde artistic movements (Surrealism, Oulipo, Fluxus) and critical practices in HCI embracing speculation, anti-solutionism, and non-determinism as epistemic forces, focusing on process over outcomes. We provide a framework dividing self-provocation methods into two levels building on defamiliarization and estrangement. Self-provocation functions analytically - understanding boundaries of current design imaginaries - and generatively - fostering creative friction to explore alternative possibility spaces. We present two self-provocation strategies and the methods we developed for them, and demonstrate through two case studies how these can be implemented in practice.

Introduction. While the nonlinear and interconnected nature of flowcharts makes them well-suited for representing and communicating complex narratives, flowcharts can appear impersonal, unapproachable, and disorienting, especially with a large number of elements. We propose an interaction technique for flowcharts that combines the narrative depth of linear storytelling with the autonomy of open-ended exploration. Related Work. This research builds on existing research on interactivity in data visualizations, sonic approaches to representing data, and flowcharts as a usually static genre of node-link diagrams conveying the structure and dynamics of nonlinear systems. Design. We introduce a flowchart interface that integrates audio narration, progressive disclosure, and animated transitions with interactive capabilities for navigating the content of the narration and flowchart. Readers of the interactive flowchart can choose between narrated or exploratory perspectives, switching between linear and nonlinear readings of the chart. Demonstration. We illustrate the technique’s design principles using the case study “I Want a Better Catastrophe”, a flowchart taking viewers on a journey through the diverging paths of our climate predicament. Evaluation. We study the potential of the technique by analyzing the reception of the case study through a feedback survey and anonymous activity logs, and by reflecting on the authoring of further interactive flowchart projects using an open-source template in the context of a university design course. Conclusion. The results of the evaluation demonstrate the potential of an interactive flowchart that combines linear storytelling and open-ended exploration. Additionally, several directions for further development as well as new design opportunities emerge from the project. We believe the outlined technique underscores a more general potential for the harmonization and integration of narrative and exploratory approaches into data visualizations.