For more, we love the "Ways to promote interdisciplinary research" (Brown 2015) below.
Funders
- Manage funding from an interdisciplinary perspective while reinforcing research impact. Discipline-based agencies must form joint funding programmes.
- Panels should include a balance of experts from the social and biophysical sciences, with a strong appreciation of other disciplines. It is also useful to include end-users of the research (for example, practioners and policymakers).
- Calls for funding should request balance between disciplines and prefer teams that have a proven record of collaboration. Publication in applicants' own disciplines should be essential; publishing in other disciplines is desirable.
Institutions
- Introduce key performance indicators that promote T-shaped researchers. For example, include qualitative measures of impact on policy and practice, as well as conventional academic indices.
- Identify institutional research strengths that show potential for interdisciplinary collaboration and incentivize it through seed grants.
- Reduce transaction costs: for example, through summer schools to develop constructive dialogue skills. Provide platforms — seminars, research workshops, debating competitions — to discuss challenges in cross-disciplinary research and offer insights into the norms and cultures of other disciplines. Co-locate researchers from different disciplines who work on the same grand challenges.
- Invest in interdisciplinary PhD cohorts, co-supervised by academics from diverse departments or faculties.
Publishers
- Invest in and create high-quality interdisciplinary journals, managed by editorial teams or boards of T-shaped researchers.
- Run special issues in high-impact, single-discipline journals that focus on interdisciplinary research.
- Peer reviewers should assess work using their disciplinary expertise, while being tasked to be open to innovations across disciplines.
Researchers
- Build stamina, patience and self-awareness to manage the long journey of establishing a productive interdisciplinary team.
- Put your best ideas forward even if they are unfinished, and be open to alternative perspectives from other disciplines, policymakers, industry practitioners and community members.
- Prioritize depth early on, and embrace breadth by building relationships with those from other fields and practices.