Innovation in Education and Training: Insights from New Integrative Approaches

Abstract

To train future generations of researchers, novel approaches are needed. In this chapter, we address education and training requirements for an integrative science applied to rural territories. We start by discussing the conceptual background for a renewed research approach and some proposals from the scientific literature. Then, we present needs and demands of students and young researchers based on a review of more than 10 years of experience in inter- and transdisciplinary training using the territory as a common ground. We conclude with a proposal for a new framework for education and training programs in which flexibility, reflexivity, and readiness for innovation and adaptation are the key skills. In particular, we highlight three issues of integration: (a) between researchers and stakeholders in the process of knowledge production, considering the specific knowledge of each actor and his/her role in the system; (b) among disciplines in new methodological designs, recognizing the complementarity of the disciplines’ approaches and knowledge bases and accepting new complex methods as a way forward; (c) across scales, from the field and farm, where daily management decisions are made, to the landscape and territory, where the support of most public goods and services can be identified and assessed.