The Gluon researcher is a dedicated integration expert who leads the co-creation process of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge. This booklet, The Gluon, describes the origins and nature of the Gluon approach and the Gluon researcher role.

Despite the widespread interest in interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity (ITD) as a means to address complex problems, many collaborations struggle with an integration deficit that leaves knowledge contributions in relative isolation and prevents ITD from fulfilling its promise.

Gluon researchers have three tasks. They design and implement integrative procedures, author integrated products, and study integrative methods. They therefore simultaneously learn how to co-create knowledge in different settings, while also extracting integrated observations about the problem domains that are studied. Like the elementary particle, a Gluon researcher therefore counterbalances the natural process of fragmentation that occurs when subatomic particles that collectively form a nucleus are not continuously connected. This division of labour reduces the workload of specialists and acknowledges the complementary contribution made by integration expertise in academia. The Gluon approach is therefore meant to radically improve the conditions for ITD.

Ultimately, this booklet serves to inspire ambitious ITD collaborations and calls on other integration experts to reveal themselves and share their expertise.