My name is Jonas Colen Ladeia Torrens (he/him), and I am a researcher and teacher focusing on enabling transformations towards sustainability. I am dedicated to understanding how we can navigate the current poly-crisis in just and timely ways. Since my PhD, I have engaged extensively with urban, policy, and societal experimentation and the policies that should guide it.
My research lies at the intersection of sustainability transitions and transformations and inter and transdisciplinary research practices. Lately, I have been writing about transformative research and education practices and the potential of mass mobilisations towards climate action.
I value deepening inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations to enable these transformations. I am one of the co-authors of the Transdisciplinary Field Guide at UU. I work closely with the Centre for Unusual Collaborations, both as an instructor of the Spark Training and leading the Unbox Project, where we are developing a companion tool for supporting the design of interdisciplinary collaborations.
I am a longstanding member of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network, where I co-founded the Network for Early Career Researchers and co-lead the Urban Transitions and Transformations thematic group. I have also engaged extensively with the Eu-SPRI Forum.
Most of my research concerns urban transformations and innovation policy as avenues for supporting systemic change. Ultimately, I want to contribute to developing our society's capacity for positive change.