NSSI Research

The NSSI research groups of Prof. Dr. R. W. Scholz are engaged with environmental decision making processes. We investigate prerequisites, constraints and impacts of individual, organizational and social decision making. NSSI develops methods, models and theories for investigating environmental decision making with the goal of establishing sustainable human and environment interactions.

Our work is genuinely inter- and transdisciplinary.

The cluster's or project's titles are linked to their related home pages.

Interdisciplinary Research »»

The research groups investigate prerequisites, constraints, drivers, and impacts of individual, organizational and societal decision making that is principally related to environmental issues. The current focus is on the development of methods, models and theories that support sustainable human and environment interactions. Special attention is paid to the development of decision aids for environmental evaluations and to methods of knowledge integration. In contribution to decision making research, one goal of our research is to enhance problem solving and process refinement capabilities providing significant ecological benefits understood to sustain long-term human prosperity. Sustainability learning and environmental risk literacy are general issues of all research projects.

Transdisciplinarity Laboratory (TdLab) »»

There is a need for adequate institutional facilities through which a science-society dialogue can be established, e.g., a transdisciplinarity laboratory. Here, scientists and non-scientists cooperate for a certain period of time, aspire to a mutual learning process and conduct transdisciplinary research. The TdLab has developed the ETH-NSSI Case Study in the Department of Environmental Sciences, which has organized twelve case studies in Zurich and, furthermore, has contributed to almost ten case studies in Sweden, Germany and Austria. The transdisciplinary case study is a hybrid combining learning, research, and application used to learn competencies and skills necessary for research in problems of sustainable development. In case studies, methods are used that allow to integrate different types and qualities of knowledge, as well as different interests and types of cognitive representations. The current focus of the TdLab is on the application of our knowledge, skills and experiences to real(-life), complex, societally-relevant problems shaped by environmental issues, such as radioactive waste management.

Completed Research Projects »»

Associated Research Groups

• Society, Environment and Culture (Dr. Klaus Seeland)