2012-2015: Origins
With the early roots of this project dating back as far as 2012, the concrete vision for a “CERN-inspired research infrastructure for Contemplative Science” was born in 2015 with the question:
How can the experience, expertise, and model of international scientific collaboration at CERN be merged with state-of-the-art research in the nascent interdisciplinary field of Contemplative Science, for mutual benefit as well as for the wider benefit of society, humanity, and all living beings?
Wolfgang Lukas began to discuss this vision with researchers and colleagues in Europe and the US. Further inspiration came through the CERN-UN symposium “The CERN model, United Nations and global public goods: addressing global challenges” in the Palais des Nations at UNOG in Geneva, Switzerland (see a full recording of the event here).
2016: Early explorations
Key factors for collaboration?
In August 2016, Wolfgang presented the vision and ideas for the first time at the European Summer Research Institute (ESRI 2016) hosted by Mind & Life Europe at Chiemsee, Germany. Here the emphasis was placed on key factors that would be essential for a CERN-inspired contemplative collaborative culture and research infrastructure for Contemplative Science.
Project launch
In September 2016, the project was officially launched under the working title “Contemplative Collaboration” (CC). The Yoga Science Foundation, who had already been generously supporting the development of this vision (and Wolfgang’s career transition) for many years, continued to support the CC project.
In November 2016, the project was presented by Wolfgang at the International Symposium for Contemplative Science (ISCS 2016) hosted by the Mind & Life Institute in San Diego, California, USA.
2017: Extending the scope
Collaborative practices
In 2016 and 2017, visits to CERN and exchanges with colleagues, as well as trainings and workshops, helped expand the scope of the CC project. It now began to embrace themes such as organizational culture and development, collaborative decision-making, communication, and participatory practices and processes suitable for collaboration. The project’s emphasis began to shift towards the importance and role of practice: the actual cultivation, development and refinement of skills and traits that help enable individuals and groups to participate and engage in collaborative structures.
Workshop at CERN IdeaSquare
An interdisciplinary workshop on the theme of “Contemplative Collaboration”, co-facilitated by Wolfgang Lukas and Nathalie Legros, was hosted at the IdeaSquare innovation hub at CERN in May 2017 with the support of Dr. Markus Nordberg. This workshop brought together for the first time particle physicists, contemplative neuroscientists, and other individuals working at NGOs and in the private sector, to explore the creative tension between competition and collaboration.
1st, 2nd, 3rd person perspectives
In subsequent project presentations at conferences in Europe and the US, the emphasis was placed on the interconnections between first-, second-, and third-person practices and principles that are essential for successful collaboration, specifically in the domain of Contemplative Science. The CC project was also shared during an “Art of Hosting” workshop at the European Forum Alpbach 2017 in Alpbach, Austria.
2018: Refining the vision
Collaboration and its challenges
Wolfgang’s growing enthusiasm for the vast potential – and recognition of the dire necessity – of “deep collaboration” in science and society was balanced by a humbling appreciation of how difficult collaboration can be “on the court”. This realization was largely shaped by several years of first-hand experience with values-aligned community-building and “integrated cooperation” with Leap Forward, whose members also provided invaluable support.
CSC manifesto
In 2018, a “manifesto” proposal was written by Wolfgang to capture the current scope of the project – now being titled “Contemplative Scientific Collaboration” (CSC) –, to disseminate its vision, and to propose a possible roadmap and next steps towards further development and gradual implementation over the coming years and decades.
Further presentations of the CSC project were given at the Todi Week 2018 and 2019 in Italy, at international conferences and events by Mind & Life and Mind & Life Europe, and at universities in Austria.
2019-today: Building community
2019: enActivists
In 2019, a group of researchers converged around the CSC vision and began to explore its practical applications. The group experimented with augmenting, applying and evolving the proposed ideas, practices and forms in their regular meetings. At the same time, they leaned into providing mutual support for individual projects and challenges that each of them was engaging in academia and beyond.
At some point, they started calling themselves “enActivists” – to highlight their enactive approach, their practical orientation, and their shared ambition to help transform academic and research culture that they care deeply about.
2020: Mindful Researchers
Since 2020, this collaborative impulse has been growing and branching into several initiatives, most notably the Mindful Researchers. This initiative emerged during the Mind & Life Europe Summer Research Institute (ESRI) in August 2020. At the end of the program, several researchers took up Wolfgang’s invitation to co-create an abstract for the Mind & Life Contemplative Research Conference (CRC), a major online conference in the field of Contemplative Research – leading to an online presentation at that conference in November 2020. These activities marked the beginning for a growing collective of “Mindful Researchers”, aiming to engage in (1) further collaborative initiatives and (2) an ever deepening inquiry into concrete possibilities to merge their contemplative and academic lives. The collective also used the participatory decision-making method “Systemic Konsensing” to make collaborative choices, such as deciding on their most preferred communication platforms.
In December 2020, we held our first Listening Circle, merging the ancient practice of Council / Circle with our modern academic life. This format became our first regular (monthly) community practice. Other formats and practices followed, such as Annika Lübbert’s “Playful Academic” sessions and other community meetings which provide an intentional space for open conversation. Around this time, we started sharing a regular newsletter about the Mindful Researchers initiative and our members’ activities, Contemplative Science, Open Science, and academic culture.
2021: Gardeners
In January 2021, a small sub-group formed with the intention to design a first Mindful Researchers workshop. Embracing our practices of deep listening, contemplation, embodied inquiry, co-design, etc., we soon discovered that our purpose was not primarily the envisioned workshop, but rather to coalesce into a regular practice group (which we called “gardeners”) that would tend to our burgeoning collective of Mindful Researchers, e.g. by providing and holding spaces for ongoing shared practice, inquiry and deep conversation in our community. We continued to bring that same “modus operandi” to any joint activities, such as designing and co-facilitating presentations, as best we could.
2022: Inquiry
New developments are on the horizon as the Mindful Researchers are diving deeply into cycles of listening, contemplation and co-design. How can we discover and best serve the actual needs of our community? Can and should we turn this ongoing and evolving inquiry into a research project of its own? What kinds of organizational structure might support these developments?
Following a time of pause and inquiry, two different paths emerged. Some of the former “gardeners” turned their focus on “Enactive Research”, while others gradually began to re-vision the Mindful Researchers initiative with a renewed passion for co-design and community-building.
2023: Reconvening
After a long phase of reflection and preparation, Francesco Noera and Wolfgang Lukas finally starting to reconvene the Mindful Researchers. We gave a poster presentation about the initiative at the Mind & Life Europe Summer Research Institute (ESRI) in August 2023.
Beginning with a kick-off event on 10th October 2023, we started engaging with the community in a collaborative “visioning” process that included five workshops, foreseen to be followed in 2024 by co-design sessions, polls and decision-making processes.
You are most welcome to join us and/or follow our work on mindfulresearchers.org!
If you have any suggestions, please do not hesitate to reach out!
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Next steps
In the spirit and practice of humility, we do not know what the next moment will bring, but our intention compels us to look in the following directions:
- to identify an „entrepreneurial partner“ who resonates with the vision and mission of the CSC (and ideally is a contemplative practitioner) – perhaps similar to the role that Adam Engle has played in the formation of the Mind & Life Institute – so that the project can grow sustaining wings of social entrepreneurship.
- to host and co-facilitate participatory workshops, conferences, and networking meetings, to develop the CSC vision and mission statement through a process-oriented collaboration – in a spirit of generosity and curiosity that is rooted in epistemic and intellectual humility. We seek to create safe and empowering spaces for scientists and practitioners to explore „the unknown“ and discover what truly matters, what really is in the service of the whole, and how to collaborate toward accomplishing our emerging goals.
- to disseminate materials to share our emerging vision and its „minimal replicable seed“ across multi-media outlets – to “tell the CSC story” and to inspire others to share their stories with us.
- to discover and invite like-heart-minded organizations to engage in a collaborative strategic partnership. A major milestone will be to actualize the first CSC model for collaboration (and later, a meta-collaboration among several “CSC-aligned nodes”).
If you have any ideas or feedback, please let us know!