Cross-disciplinary research for Discovery Science.

Lead Research Organisation: University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Research Administration

Abstract

A full outline is provided in the Governance Plan. In summary, the initiative will enable the University of Aberdeen to initiate activities that will help our academic community to develop an understanding of different cross-disciplinary research perspectives and methodologies that could be used to enable discoveries that unlock new knowledge within the environmental sciences. The University will invite applications for 'discipline-hopping' activities to facilitate and enhance interdisciplinary research in areas of relevance to NERC's Discovery Science agenda. We anticipate that the funding will be used to undertake a suite of dynamic activities including:
- Establishing new, high-quality interdisciplinary research collaborations, or significantly enhancing existing partnerships, both internally and externally.
- Increasing expertise and agility to work across disciplinary boundaries.
- Supporting early career researchers to undertake independent research projects which involve exposure and experience outwith their current research environment.
- Enhancing interdisciplinary working in areas relevant to the NERC Discovery Science agenda.
- Sharing skills, knowledge, techniques, and supporting the sharing of best practice across academic silos.

Publications

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Description This funding was extremely valuable for kick-starting collaborations and empowering adventurous research by exposing researchers involved to new ideas, new technologies and challenging concepts. Funding of this scale is valuable in determining whether a larger project would be viable, and can also create space for project development while testing collaborative potential and reciprocity across disciplines.

Perceptions of interdisciplinary working changed as a result of the activities undertaken. Based on feedback collected there was a shared view amongst sub-awardees that interdisciplinary working is important, enjoyable, and beneficial and that whilst value has always been placed on interdisciplinary working in principle it was good to experience it working in practice. For some researchers perceptions were not changed significantly; instead the experience cemented their view that world leading 4* science requires synthesis of expertise across disciplinary boundaries. And for others the experience showed that interdisciplinary working is a more complex process than they originally thought (i.e. it needed time to set proper goals, make decisions, share resources, and develop a shared language), or offered surprises as to the degree to which they shared many research interests with researchers from other disciplines.
Exploitation Route Additional funding applications have been developed (research grants, PhD studentships) by sub-awardees to continue the development of interdisciplinary networks for research and knowledge exchange.
Based on sub-awardees' responses we identified 3 types of barriers to interdisciplinary working at the University of Aberdeen - Disciplinary Differences, Opportunities for Interdisciplinary Collaboration (including Research Environment) & Risk. The University of Aberdeen's Directorate of Research and Innovation and the Directors of our Interdisciplinary Challenge Areas continue to reflect on this feedback, and design new initiatives to help to lower these barriers and fulfil our strategic commitments to interdisciplinary research.
Sectors Other