“Ben ik een roepende in de woestijn of die pionier die daadwerkelijk iets in beweging zet?” This question of one of the use case members of the Dutch Blockchain Coalition (DBC) highlights the precarious venture of its transdisciplinary efforts towards innovation. Transdisciplinary collaboration is key to fundamentally transforming blockchain applications for Dutch society. Such collaborative processes are highly complex though. The essential collaborative capability of collaborating partners is continuously (re)constructed in their interactions, making or breaking the teamwork. Understanding these group dynamics, therefore, is key to set the right stage for successful collective effort. The TU Delft Communication Design for Innovation department, member of the Delft Blockchain Lab, has studied three teams within the DBC to gain insights into transdisciplinary team processes within the network.

In this series of comments, we argue for Science Communication as an enabler of transdisciplinary, integrative collaboration in the context of today’s complex, multi-stakeholder issues. Participatory design, as a collaborative method, is effective in achieving mutual learning, shared understandings, integrating disciplines and creating solutions that make sense in the multi-layered reality of today’s challenges. Science Communication, therefore, is communication design in transdisciplinary collaborations.

Connect and create. With this tagline, the Dutch Blockchain Coalition (DBC) works on the development of the upcoming technology of blockchain. In 2017 various partners from industry as well as government and knowledge institutions officially launched the coalition, a collaboration which aims to stimulate the development of blockchain applications for Dutch society.

After a period of foundation, the coalition is running and at a crucial stage of scaling-up. Capacities, abilities, ideas and concepts are available within the network to make further steps forward, but how to unleash these steps as a growing, ever-evolving network? This whitepaper aims to support the DBC’s scale-up by reflecting on its evolution from a network perspective and recommending next steps to move further towards transformative blockchain innovations.