The Transatlantic Research Lab on Complex Societal Challenges emerged from an initiative launched during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, when the first global lockdowns highlighted the far-reaching societal consequences of pandemic mitigation measures. In response, a transatlantic group of researchers began meeting regularly in online formats to discuss emerging and anticipated societal challenges from a systems science and complexity-oriented perspective.
This initial initiative—informally referred to as the “COVID Group”—brought together researchers from Arizona State University, the Santa Fe Institute, Harvard University, and the World Climate Forum. It was led by Gerald Steiner (University for Continuing Education Krems, UWK – Danube University), Faculty of Business and Globalization, Department of Knowledge and Communication Management, in close collaboration with Eva Schernhammer (Medical University of Vienna, Center for Public Health, Department of Epidemiology), and in alliance with the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.
What began as an informal platform for scientific exchange rapidly evolved into a permanent weekly working format, enabling sustained interdisciplinary collaboration across continents. As the group’s focus expanded beyond the immediate pandemic context, it increasingly addressed complex societal challenges more broadly, including questions of resilience, sustainability, governance, and systemic risk. Over time, the initiative incorporated additional disciplinary expertise, notably in mineral resources (Freiberg University of Mining and Technology) and social evolution and cognition (Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research).
This developmental phase culminated on September 30, 2021, when the initiative was formally elevated to the status of the Transatlantic Research Lab on Complex Societal Challenges. The official launch took place on the concluding day of the first Global Transdisciplinarity Conference, organized by Steiner and colleagues in Krems, Austria.
Since its formal establishment, the Lab has produced a growing body of scientific contributions addressing complex societal challenges through interdisciplinary, systems science–based, and complexity-oriented approaches. From its inception, the Lab has maintained continuous weekly meetings throughout the year, sustaining collaborative research activities even during academic breaks and holiday periods, thereby reinforcing its role as a stable, long-term transatlantic research platform.
In recent years, the Lab has further strengthened its commitment to transdisciplinarity, actively integrating advanced complexity science methodologies and participatory decision-support tools, such as the Decision Theatre developed at Arizona State University. Through sustained collaboration, joint research projects, and shared publication endeavors, the Lab aims to generate robust scientific insights that contribute to understanding and addressing present and future real-world societal challenges.
