This paper explores the potential for cognitive maps to enhance discussion of transdisciplinary research (TDR). Differentiating between tacit, internalised mental maps and sharable, visual cognitive maps as his point of departure the author revisits Sanders’ seminal 2006 cognitive map modelling the topography of design research and practice. He then articulates a rationale for creating a new framework for mapping the collaborative design and health research space, discussing how this may allow for the exploration of common research goals but approached from alternative but potentially mutually complementary perspectives, drawing from – and perhaps combining - the preferred methods and epistemes of different fields. A set of mappings of four different approaches to a particular health challenge is then discussed in relation to three identified characteristics of TDR, revealing options for design’s contribution working in collaboration with other disciplines.