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There is a pressing need for transformative change, with a vision of long-term human well-being within planetary boundaries. The lack of progress—despite increasing awareness and action—illustrates how challenging it is to foster change in our complex global society. Education and learning are needed to enable change. Transdisciplinary learning, which meaningfully integrates diverse knowledge and perspectives, contributes to developing an integrative understanding—a necessity for tackling complex challenges. We explore how transdisciplinary learning for early-career researchers can foster transformative change and lead to increased biodiversity conservation. This paper focuses on a case study of the authors’ shared experiences during the 2021 Alternet Summer School, which focused on transformative change for biodiversity conservation and human well-being. In this introspective research, we gained insights through an online survey for participants and organizers of the summer school (n = 27). Using qualitative content analysis, we identify seven crucial elements of transdisciplinary learning which can lead to transformative change on (a) a personal level, as the learning process shifts values and helps researchers identify their roles; (b) a research level, by rethinking science and providing tools for transdisciplinary approaches, and (c) a societal level, by moving from the individual to the collective and constructing a shared vision for a sustainable future. Participants highlighted how changes on all these levels could benefit biodiversity conservation. These insights point to the benefit of transdisciplinary learning opportunities that empower young researchers to take up their part in fostering transformative change.

Global challenges caused by increasing anthropogenic pressures lead to biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems. To counter the threatened integrity of socio-ecological systems, transformative change that supports biodiversity conservation and long-term human well-being is needed. Fostering such changes in our global society is complex–as evidenced by the limitedsuccess achieved to date in tackling these challenges. Transdisciplinary approaches, however, have proven capable of facilitating the development of an integrative understanding of socio-ecological systems by disentangling complex relationships, bridging the gaps between science and policy and thereby highlighting ways forward for system-wide transformation. Nonetheless, transdisciplinarity is not yet broadly adopted in science, policy and practice. One way to overcome this gap in implementation is transdisciplinary education.We will illustrate how the use of transdisciplinary education for early-career researchers can serve as a key leverage point to foster transformative change in biodiversity conservation. To this end we draw upon the practical experience of a summer school focusing on transformative change for biodiversity. We argue that this transdisciplinary and immersive learning experience contributes to transformative change on three levels: On a personal level, the learning processhelps researchers to identify their own role in this transformative change; on a research level, its collaborative approach, using knowledge integration and co-creation, can improve research outcomes which address the complexity of socio-ecological problems; and, on a societal level, it enables researchers to mobilize this knowledge for vital contributions to transformative change. Transdisciplinary education opens opportunities for interdisciplinary networks, supporting the inclusion of stakeholders and integrating the socio-ecological system to foster and understand ecosystem services and their value to humans. As transformative change is long past due to address society’s compound crises, we demonstrate the importance of equipping young researchers with the tools of transdisciplinarity so that they can effectively fulfill their responsibilities in tomorrow's society.