Discover Schmidt Science Fellows

Interdisciplinarity

Solving the world’s complex problems will be so much harder if higher education is confined to disciplinary silos. Universities must encourage work across departments to develop creative and innovative answers to global challenges.

Advice for bringing together expertise and skills from multiple academic disciplines to seek innovative solutions, examples of interdisciplinary collaboration done well and guidance on how to put inter- and transdisciplinarity into practice in research, teaching, leadership and impact.

Medical science has made great advances in the battle against cancer thanks to the research power of a broad coalition of scientists. To sustain this progress, multidisciplinary perspectives will remain vital, leading the search for better diagnostics, more effective treatments and a greater understanding of the disease.Alice Wong can testify to that. A chair professor in the School of Biological Sciences and associate vice-president of research at the University of Hong Kong, Wong’s research into signal transduction in cancer cells explores how the disease spreads. Her group’s findings on cell adhesion dynamics potentially open up avenues for novel treatments. She says cancer is just one example among many of how today’s biggest research questions require multidisciplinary collaboration.“For my project, I’ve brought in chemists, where we talk about drug discovery,” she says. “Even with some of the patient samples, we might have to bring in a biostatistician. We might also have to bring in computational biologists when we handle some of the single-cell data. With these questions, you need people with different expertise to come together to answer them.”Many of the University of Hong Kong’s interdisciplinary collaborations arise from like-minded scientists getting together in a room. It can be as easy as that. Collaboration often happens organically, bottom-up. “A lot of the symposiums nowadays – say it is a cancer and drug discovery symposium – we are already inviting experts from different areas. By talking to other members from different areas it is easier to get collaborations,” says Wong.But there are also institutional incentives for those willing to collaborate. The university favours applications from scientists who want to set up research centres with an interdisciplinary focus. Its research committee sets aside HKD 48 million (£4.7m) of annual funding for interdisciplinary projects. Funding streams that prioritise interdisciplinary research still play a vital role in getting projects off the ground.&nbsp;The University of Hong Kong’s research ecosystem is supported by funding from the University Grants Committee, whose Collaborative Research Fund&nbsp;was established to encourage the proliferation of multidisciplinary research groups tackling the kinds of cross-disciplinary – and cross-institutional – collaborations that are needed when dealing with subjects such as infectious diseases, climate change, fintech and advanced materials.Interdisciplinary research needs support at all levels. The talent pipeline is crucial. Wong credits her PhD programme at the University of British Columbia for giving her a grounding in interdisciplinary collaboration. The thesis committee model also taught her the value of interdisciplinary perspectives.&nbsp;“They bring in expertise from different departments to come together to look at your work, to ask you questions,” says Wong. “So we are already in an environment where we feel collaboration is important and that we do things together.”Wong says the biggest challenge thereafter is whether researchers can attract others to work with them and whether they can lead a project. It all begins with a conversation and a compelling research question in search of an answer.Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

When the most impactful research collaborations often start with a conversation, it pays for universities to put like-minded scientists in the room together, no matter their expertise

Answering science’s toughest questions through interdisciplinary collaboration

Image credit: © Creative Services, University of Bath, 2024 all rights reserved.When it comes to maximising research excellence, environment matters. Universities do not lack intellectual firepower. But how their organisational culture and strategy align to support research talent can be the vital spark for innovation – especially when facilitating ambitious multidisciplinary collaborations to tackle society’s most urgent issues.Sarah Hainsworth, pro vice-chancellor for research and enterprise at the University of Bath, says domain-specific approaches alone will not yield the solutions today’s world needs. “It’s only when you start to build interdisciplinary teams that you’re able to tackle those big, complex global challenges,” she says. “Where you get the benefit is people asking the difficult questions – you start asking the ‘but why?’ questions. Or it can just be that somebody looks at a different field and says, ‘I’ve got a tool from my field that would solve that problem for you.’”The University of Bath runs several initiatives to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration. Launched in 2021, the Bath Beacons initiative is aligned with the university’s broader research priorities and UK Research and Innovation’s strategic themes. The Beacons offer a practical example of how a university can assemble multidisciplinary research teams.The Bath Beacon team for managing antimicrobial resistance comprises researchers from life sciences, chemistry, mathematical sciences, chemical engineering, electronic and electrical engineering, health, psychology and Bath’s Institute for Policy Research. Other Beacons have similarly diverse cohorts.“One of the things that’s really important is actually bringing people together,” says Hainsworth. “That’s why things like the Bath Beacon scheme have been really helpful. What we have done is create an environment where people actually come together and talk across those disciplinary boundaries.”Some of those conversations take on familiar themes. AI is a hot topic. Hainsworth argues that it’s how you apply AI capabilities that matter. Rather than assigning an AI researcher to each project, Bath’s Institute for Mathematical Innovation pools its expertise to provide maths, machine learning and AI support across multiple projects.Hainsworth believes researchers with an understanding of systems thinking will be invaluable for unpicking complicated problems. Similarly, by pairing experts in the sciences with those in humanities, innovations – be they technological or in policymaking – can be tailored for maximum impact.“We have some people who are working on lab-grown meat – our cellular agriculture team,” says Hainsworth. “One of the biggest things for them is going to be about how that gets accepted by the public. How it gets through things like food standards and how it gets accepted by the general public because for it to be a commercial success people have to want to buy it and eat it.”&nbsp;Interdisciplinary scientists face challenges when establishing themselves and securing funding. Hainsworth argues that universities need to help researchers balance their core disciplinary expertise with interdisciplinary collaborations and remove rigid departmental boundaries and administrative hurdles. In the long-term, it will pay off for the researcher – and for society, too.Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

Universities can build their interdisciplinary research capacity through deliberate strategy and support for academics whose intellectual curiosity extends beyond their domain expertise in search of collaboration

Fostering innovation through interdisciplinary research

If we want students to engage deeply and critically with the world they are preparing to transform, we need more than digital tools. We need frameworks that merge emerging technology with cultural identity, collaboration and creative exploration. This is not about jumping on the next trend. It’s about reclaiming the purpose of education: to imagine and build futures that matter.That belief shaped a project we developed across two campuses of our institution. Architecture, design, and arts students came together to answer a question that was as playful as it was profound: What would life on the Moon look like if it were imagined from a Latin American perspective?The result? Human settlements on the Moon that students designed not just with functionality in mind, but with cultural memory, storytelling and sensory experience at the centre. Yes, they used exciting tools such as virtual reality (VR), sound design and 3D modelling platforms. But these were not the project. They were the bridge.Students from both campuses met in our campus metaverse to share progress, exchange feedback and refine ideas. This virtual interaction fostered a sense of shared purpose and presence, despite the physical distance. It encouraged more frequent and dynamic collaboration, as students could see each other’s evolving work in real time, ask questions, and offer insights in a collective space. The metaverse wasn’t just a meeting tool – it became a creative environment where cultural references, design approaches, and feedback loops merged naturally, increasing student engagement.The immersive environment of our metaverse platform allowed students in different locations to “inhabit” a shared design space where they didn’t just present ideas – they walked through them together, reacted in real time and collectively made sense of each proposal’s spatial and cultural logic. This flattened hierarchies, empowered quieter voices and nurtured a community of creators who felt seen and heard. The sense of presence and shared authorship was key to the richness of the outcomes.&nbsp;Students from both campuses met synchronously to share progress, exchange feedback and refine ideas. Later, they used immersive technologies to validate their proposals, checking materials, scale, light and atmosphere. They walked through their proposals as if they were already built on the Moon.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingCan you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?A comprehensive model for interdisciplinary teachingAnd that’s the point: immersive learning is not about putting on a headset and watching a virtual simulation. It’s about activating presence, agency and imagination – connecting deeply with the purpose of what’s being built and who it’s being built for.Before we jump into takeaways, we must ask why this project resonated so strongly with students. The answer lies in its fusion of imagination, relevance and agency. Students weren’t simply applying learned knowledge – they were co-creating a future that reflected their values, culture and creativity.So what can other institutions take from this experience? Here are five ideas:Start with a provocative question, not a tool. The strongest educational experiences aren’t tech-led, they’re curiosity-led. Ask students to solve something big, weird or beautiful, and then let them choose the tools to get there.Treat technology as a translator, not a destination. Augmented reality (AR) and VR are not the goal. They are the media through which students can test ideas, tell stories and share visions. Keep the focus on what they help us express.Build cultural identity into the curriculum. Don’t just prepare students for a global market – prepare them to challenge it, to bring their context, their heritage and their imagination into global conversations.Don’t isolate disciplines. Collide them.&nbsp;On one of our campuses, architecture students collaborated with musicians, digital artists and storytellers. The result was not just more engaging – it was more authentic.Make the metaverse social and pedagogical – not just visual. Using a virtual campus to connect groups synchronously gave students a space for feedback and mutual inspiration. The tech was a space, not a show.We need to stop assuming that innovation in higher education comes only from new tech. Instead, we should focus on the design of rich learning experiences – ones that start with questions rooted in human and cultural complexity, not just technical capability. Real innovation lies in empowering students to shape knowledge rather than consume it, to build futures that are inclusive, imaginative and context-aware.Sometimes, it comes from asking better questions – and letting our students surprise us with answers that reflect not only what’s possible, but what’s meaningful.&nbsp;Because designing the future isn’t just a technical challenge. It’s a cultural responsibility.Antonio Juárez and Rubén Vázquez are educators at Monterrey Institute of Technology in Mexico.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Combine VR and culture in interdisciplinary learning

A project that involved students designing human settlements on the Moon shows how combining cultural identity with VR technology can unite learners across disciplines and campuses to imagine and shape the future


How combining VR with cultural identity can make interdisciplinary learning more impactful 

Students use the term “filler course” to refer to programmes they deem irrelevant to their professional goals. For teachers of such courses, many of which fall under the social sciences and humanities disciplines, this perception can be very difficult to overcome.&nbsp;The issue is even greater for online, asynchronous courses; a lack of personal interaction between the teacher and the student often makes students further question the usefulness of these courses.&nbsp;There is much written about how to use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve teaching. But can we also use AI tools to help students understand how courses not directly related to their majors are relevant to their future ambitions?&nbsp;My colleagues and I have used the following strategies in our asynchronous, online course, Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance, with promising results.Tailor learning to students’ professional aspirationsIt is challenging to provide clear examples and applications of how certain topics can be useful to students studying for highly technical professions. To help with this, we asked students to input our course topics and their preferred careers into ChatGPT and ask the following questions, requesting clear and real-life examples.Why and how will the course topics be important for my professional life?&nbsp;How can I apply what I learn in this course in my future career?The tool responded with concrete, field-specific examples that helped them understand how the course content could be applied in their areas of study.Link theoretical and abstract topics with practical applications: students may find applying theoretical or abstract topics to their professional fields difficult. For example, a student taking my course might ask how learning about Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition is useful to them as a future mechatronics engineer. For cases like this, ask students to input the following prompt into ChatGPT:How will learning about (insert specific course topic) be useful to my future professional life as a (insert job title)? Provide clear and real-life examples or scenarios.&nbsp;You can complement these exercises with 360° videos or virtual reality resources to make the learning experience even more meaningful.Generate personalised study strategiesEven if students do genuinely care about so-called filler courses, they may struggle to balance them with other academic priorities. We asked students to create both professional and personal profiles that include their main areas of improvement, such as time management skills. Then, we instructed them to use the following prompt:Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional details). Based on this, give me at least five strategies that I can start implementing today to maximise my learning in the Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance course. Take into account the following characteristics of the course: college-level, online and asynchronous.We recommend using this strategy as a complement to others, since by itself, it might not impact students’ perspectives of the course. However, when combined with reflective activities, it can help students view a course as more relevant to their personal development.Spotlight guide: Bringing GenAI into the university classroomIs critical thinking the answer to generative AI?Advice on interdisciplinarity in higher educationHighlight the soft skills students will developMy colleagues and I wanted to highlight how our use of COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), a Global Shared Learning experience, improves students’ soft skills. To do this, we asked them to use the following prompt:The Global Citizenship: Diversity and Tolerance course offers students a Global Shared Learning experience. Through collaboration with universities in different countries, it connects students across borders and facilitates learning in intercultural environments. The Global Shared Learning model is based on the Collaborative Online International Learning methodology. Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional profile).&nbsp;Question 1: why and how will this Global Shared Learning experience be important for my personal and professional lives?Question 2: how can I apply what I have learned from a Global Shared Learning experience to my future career?We asked the students to use another prompt to find out how the competencies our course aims to improve will be relevant to them. They include recognition, empathy and verbal communication. This was the prompt they used:Here is some information about me: (insert personal and professional details). &nbsp;Question 1: why and how will recognition, empathy and verbal communication be important for my personal and professional lives?&nbsp;Question 2: what are some potential applications of these competencies in my career?&nbsp;Showing students how these soft skills are relevant to their future career success helps students understand how courses such as yours can enrich their professional and personal lives.Assess the impact&nbsp;It is important to measure the impact of your activities to ensure they are working. I suggest using a tool such as Google Forms to check students’ initial perceptions and expectations to see if you need to adapt your approach. Once you implement these activities, you can re-evaluate students’ perceptions using the following questions:&nbsp;How did the activities motivate you to engage with the course topics?&nbsp;How did the activity help you understand the course topics’ relevance to your field of study?&nbsp;How confident do you feel about applying the course content in real-world work scenarios after engaging in these activities?&nbsp;In an age of complex global challenges, it’s more important than ever to help students connect with courses in the social sciences and humanities. We can turn to AI to help express the importance of these to students pursuing careers not directly related to them.Elizabeth Marcial Morales is a tutor professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

How to change students’ perceptions of a ‘filler’ course

Ways to employ tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot to show students the real-world relevance of so-called filler courses

From ‘filler’ to ‘fulfilling’: how to change students’ perceptions of a course

Many of the most impactful scientific projects came together through the simple mechanism of letting like-minded researchers from different fields share a space, their expertise and a common goal. The key is to create an environment in which interdisciplinary collaborations can thrive and become commonplace.The National University of Singapore (NUS) has made interdisciplinary research a strategic priority, and its deputy president of research and technology, Bin Liu, knows precisely what effective collaboration looks like, both from an institutional perspective and from her experience in the laboratory.A scientist with a background in organic chemistry who has applied machine learning techniques in her groundbreaking research into advanced materials for biomedical applications, Liu says universities must prioritise interdisciplinarity and make such collaborations happen.“When we bring people from different disciplines together, we become more powerful in solving challenging problems,” Liu says. “NUS established programmes, initiatives and institutes that increase touch points and spur collaboration between experts from various disciplines.”NUS has made considerable efforts to develop its interdisciplinary capability. One example is the NUS Smart Nation Research Cluster (SNRC) established in 2018, which now comprises more than 15 research centres and institutes working on data sciences, AI, cybersecurity, optimisation research and analytics, and behavioural sciences, co-located in the NUS Innovation 4.0 building.Recently established at NUS is the AI Institute, which pairs experts in AI and computer science with domain experts from a range of disciplines such as finance, healthcare and sustainability. &nbsp;Liu says it can be a force multiplier for innovation. “If we can leverage state-of-the-art technology such as AI, then we can push the frontier of each domain much faster,” she says. “When domain experts effectively integrate AI into their research, magic can happen because the best methodology can be immediately utilised for practical applications.”Integration is the watchword. The SNRC brings together researchers in STEM and humanities subjects to pursue transformative research projects. “With expansive data and analysis tools, our social science research has become a lot more quantitative,” says Liu. “A lot of historically difficult work becomes much easier with digitisation. With AI and its integration into the discipline, it becomes much more straightforward.”Singapore’s research ecosystem incentivises interdisciplinary approaches. For instance, large-scale projects with high societal impact will gain researchers access to the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore. The government awards larger grants to projects pairing STEM fields with the humanities, which Liu says is a “very clear signal” that it recognises collaboration is going to be vital for tackling society’s biggest problems.“Singapore is a great country with strong innovative ideas that foster interdisciplinary research,” says Liu. “All these incentives help.”Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

With top-tier cross-disciplinary research talent in leadership positions, the National University of Singapore is creating an ecosystem that rewards impactful scientific collaborations, harnessing AI’s power to accelerate research and innovation

Incentivising interdisciplinary research: lessons from Singapore

Traditional university structures often separate disciplines, limiting opportunities for students to develop the cross-sector skills employers demand. As industries become more interconnected, higher education must evolve to prepare graduates for collaborative, real-world problem-solving. Co-creation – where students, alumni and academics work together to develop educational tools – offers a powerful way to enrich learning, enhance employability and foster deeper engagement. At our institution, the Manage It. initiative shows how co-creation can transform teaching and learning, particularly in project management education.The Manage It. Project: A Cross-Divisional CollaborationManage It. is an innovative student-led project that unites MSc Project Management (Engineering) students with BSc Web &amp; Mobile Development (Computing) students to design a comprehensive project management simulation tool. Alumni and faculty also play a crucial role, offering mentorship, feedback and domain expertise. The result is a unique collaboration producing a resource tailored to real-world project environments and fit for the purposes of higher education, providing a rich learning experience for all participants.Simulations are crucial for developing strategic thinking, leadership ability and problem-solving skills, according to research from the Project Management Institute. By simulating the unpredictable nature of real-world projects, students can test and refine their decision-making in a safe environment. Manage It. is a simulation developed by students, for students. As one student participant in the Manage It. research focus groups put it: “I had a chance to experience a project simulation and to further contribute with my ideas during a focus group. I felt like my voice mattered.”This sentiment sums up the core advantage of co-creation: students are not merely passive recipients of knowledge, but active stakeholders shaping the direction of their education.Collaborative skill-buildingEngaging in the Manage It. initiative allows students from diverse backgrounds to work together on a shared goal. MSc Project Management students practise leadership, coordination and risk analysis, while BSc Web &amp; Mobile Development students apply user interface design, coding and systems testing. Alumni, many of whom have returned to mentor current students, strengthen their own leadership, research and professional skills in the process.&nbsp;How can we measure interdisciplinary learning?How to enhance teaching skills in a multidisciplinary environmentA comprehensive model for interdisciplinary teachingSashika, an alumna involved in the team, reflects: “Participating in this initiative allowed me to mentor students while refining my own leadership and project management skills.”Interdisciplinary teamworkTraditionally, university divisions are known to function in isolation, yet the real world rarely respects these silos. In Manage It., engineers and computing specialists must communicate, negotiate and manage interdependent tasks – a process that mirrors workplace realities. Such teamwork fosters crucial soft skills such as conflict resolution, empathy and adaptability. It also replicates the diverse skill sets found in professional project teams, reinforcing how different specialities can collectively drive a project’s success.The experience also shows students what “cross-disciplinary” means in practice. Web developers must learn how a project manager thinks to build user-friendly software; project managers must understand coding workflows to set realistic timelines. In bridging these gaps, participants gain respect for each other’s expertise, paving the way for more cooperative and productive collaborations in their future careers.Engagement with alumni and facultyCo-creation thrives when learners can tap into the wealth of experience and networks that alumni and faculty bring. Graduates returning to mentor or consult on the Manage It. tool highlight how valuable it is for recent cohorts to hear “war stories” or real-life lessons from industry.&nbsp;Meanwhile, faculty members, serving as facilitators rather than traditional lecturers, benefit from fresh insights and ideas that can invigorate their own teaching methods. The cycle of mutual learning, from senior-level guidance to grassroots innovation, ensures that the tool remains relevant and academically sound.Practical Insights for ImplementationEmbed co-creation in the curriculumUniversities looking to replicate this model should make co-creation projects a formal part of their modules, with clear assessment criteria and milestones. This reinforces the legitimacy of collaborative learning and ensures consistent support from faculty and administrators.Offer mentorship and support networksBringing alumni on board as mentors or sponsors can galvanise student interest and provide a valuable external perspective. Faculty should also be prepared to step into a guidance role rather than a strictly didactic one, offering resources and expertise while leaving space for student-led innovation.Showcase cross-disciplinary benefitsHighlight to students how a diverse project team mirrors professional settings. Use real-world examples to demonstrate the advantages of combining skill sets, whether that involves bridging engineering and computing, or other divisions entirely.Prioritise experiential learning toolsSimulations can help learners apply theoretical frameworks in a controlled environment, bridging the gap between academia and industry. Include facilitation notes and instructions so that educators can run sessions smoothly, ensuring consistent quality and pedagogical rigour.Looking aheadAs demand grows for graduates capable of navigating complex, technology-driven workplaces, co-creation provides a dynamic avenue for universities to stay ahead. Initiatives such as Manage It. exemplify how project management education can be enhanced through collaborative, cross-disciplinary approaches, producing tools that benefit both current students and future cohorts. The shared sense of purpose – whether among undergraduates, postgraduates, alumni or academics – instils a culture of continuous learning, creativity and engagement.Higher education institutions have much to gain from adopting co-creation as a staple of their pedagogical repertoire. Beyond equipping students with practical skills, these projects foster a culture of partnership, resilience and adaptability that will serve graduates long after they leave the classroom. Through continued innovation and collaboration, universities can shape not just the next wave of project managers, but also a generation of thinkers, leaders and collaborators ready for the challenges of the modern world.Ralitsa Arnaudova is lecturer in project management and Pablo Salva is lecturer in the computing division, both at the School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Co-creation can shape the next wave of project managers

A cross-disciplinary, student-led project to design a simulation tool helped students find a safe environment in which to practise their workplace skills. Here’s how it worked

Shape the next generation of project managers with co-creation

We live in a world facing complex, multifaceted challenges, so higher education must prepare students to think beyond single disciplines. Teaching through an interdisciplinary lens equips students with the ability to synthesise diverse perspectives, engage in collaborative problem-solving and navigate uncertainty. By doing this, we not only broaden students’ intellectual horizons but foster the development of essential skills such as teamwork, critical thinking and adaptability.Here, I’ll outline a comprehensive strategy for interdisciplinary teaching, drawing on&nbsp;insights from the Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program of the Interdisciplinary Space at my institution.Framing&nbsp;interdisciplinary&nbsp;teachingInterdisciplinary teaching begins with a shift in perspective, recognising that a single discipline cannot fully address real-world problems. In this context, instructors must adopt a dual role, as both&nbsp;content experts and integrative learning enablers.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingCan you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?How can we assess interdisciplinarity?The Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program offers a practical model for this shift and operates with a dual focus on both faculty development and student engagement. It guides faculty members through a structured process that combines experiential learning with collaborative course design.Faculty&nbsp;workshopsThe programme requires faculty members to participate in an intensive workshop, where they experience the same interdisciplinary processes they will later teach to students. This experiential strategy fosters deeper understanding of interdisciplinary course design.We group teachers into highly diverse teams based on discipline, experience and personal traits. Alternatively, in the case of research groups, researchers from different disciplines attend the workshop to form a team. The teams collaborate to design interdisciplinary courses and we guide them to&nbsp;ensure they integrate multiple perspectives into real-world problem-solving contexts.&nbsp;Six-pillar frameworkDuring the workshop, we introduce the participants to a six-pillar pedagogical framework that ensures consistency in teaching approaches across courses. It allows teachers to focus on identifying a problem and relevant content knowledge from each discipline. The six pillars are:1. Interdisciplinarity: Encourage the integration of knowledge across different fields. Faculty teams collaboratively design undergraduate courses by bringing distinct perspectives from their disciplines. Students, in turn, engage in solving complex problems requiring cross-disciplinary synthesis.&nbsp;2.&nbsp;Problem-based learning: Faculty teams collaboratively select and narrow ill-structured problems to serve as core components of their courses. The programme introduces strategies from design thinking and agile methodologies to guide this process. Later, students work on solving these problems using input from multiple disciplines.3. Academic&nbsp;motivation: Motivation is crucial for sustaining engagement. To teach this subject, the programme uses Bret Jones’ MUSIC Model of Academic Motivation, which identifies five key components. The first component, empowerment, occurs when students feel they have control over their learning environment, fostering a sense of autonomy. The second, usefulness, emphasises the importance of students perceiving coursework as relevant to their future aspirations, which enhances their commitment to learning. Success focuses on cultivating a belief that students can achieve challenging but attainable tasks, boosting their persistence and effort. Interest highlights the value of engaging instructional methods that capture and maintain students’ attention and curiosity. Lastly, caring underscores the motivational impact of students feeling supported by their instructors and peers, creating a positive and encouraging learning atmosphere.&nbsp;4. Teamwork&nbsp;knowledge: The programme emphasises the importance of teaching about team dynamics in interdisciplinary courses. Participants must navigate the challenges of collaborating with individuals from diverse disciplines, each contributing their own knowledge, skills and perspectives. We introduce faculty to core concepts from social and organisational psychology, including trust, cohesion, psychological safety and conflict. Alongside that, the programme introduces team-building exercises and communication challenges to highlight the importance of collaboration and mutual understanding. A key part of the programme is engaging in reflection activities to analyse team interactions, identify areas for improvement and provide feedback to peers.5.&nbsp;Team&nbsp;building: Building a sense of community is essential in interdisciplinary courses. The programme introduces activities that help faculty in the workshop and, later, students on the courses, cultivate a shared identity as members of an interdisciplinary learning community, rather than solely as representatives of their disciplines.&nbsp;6. Stress&nbsp;management: Interdisciplinary courses can be intensive and demanding. The programme teaches short, energising activities during long sessions to manage stress and reduce fatigue. Teachers learn to balance analytical and social tasks, alternating between cognitively demanding tasks and activities that promote social interaction and creativity.&nbsp;

  
      
  
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Figure 1.&nbsp;Interdisciplinary teaching for teachers and students. Graphs with concentric layers represent the diversity of the participants, including area, degree, teaching degree (school year for students), university campus and gender. The image represents real examples of interdisciplinary teaching teams that implemented courses with students from multiple careers.

Core&nbsp;considerations for&nbsp;interdisciplinary&nbsp;course designEstablishing&nbsp;shared goalsFaculty teams should jointly establish what students are expected to learn in terms of content and skills. These goals should emphasise the ability to connect ideas across disciplines, effective teamwork and communication, and fostering reflexivity and adaptability.Creating&nbsp;stops for&nbsp;knowledge&nbsp;integrationStudents often struggle with integrating knowledge. To support this process, instructors can:Instead of teaching modules by discipline, which would defeat the programme’s purpose, arrange the modules by integration of learning, so the teams reach checkpoints along the way to the overall solution.Use tools, such as concept maps, to encourage participants to create visual representations of how concepts from different fields connect.Create opportunities for participants to explain concepts from their fields to peers from other disciplines, facilitating cross-disciplinary dialogue.Assessment&nbsp;Assessment in interdisciplinary courses should assess integrative thinking and collaboration. Useful assessment tools include:Problem-solving exercises: Open-ended exercises designed to assess students’ ability to synthesise ideas across disciplines.Rubrics: These can be used to evaluate students’ integrative thinking, collaboration and problem-solving abilities.Peer evaluation feedback: Provides insight into students’ teamwork skills.Reflective writing: Encourages students to analyse their learning process.Standardised questionnaires: Assess overall learning outcomes and course impact.Ongoing&nbsp;faculty&nbsp;support&nbsp;After the workshop, we provide ongoing faculty support, including mentoring and peer feedback sessions, to refine course design and assist during course implementation.&nbsp;Through the programme, we have demonstrated that faculty benefit from learning and applying diverse pedagogical approaches that foster interdisciplinary collaboration in a supportive environment.&nbsp;For the&nbsp;students taught by our participants, the programme has shown significant positive outcomes regarding skill development, including teamwork, confidence in idea exploration with other people and a greater ability to tackle unfamiliar problems.Ana Corbacho is assistant professor at&nbsp;Espacio Interdisciplinario, Universidad de la República.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

A comprehensive model for interdisciplinary teaching

Interdisciplinarity is crucial for preparing students for a complicated world. Adopting a dual focus on both faculty development and student engagement could be the way forward

As global challenges become increasingly complicated, higher education needs a paradigm shift that emphasises transformative competencies through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning. At the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, we align inter- and transdisciplinary education to shape societal transformation through, for example, sustainable urban development, equitable healthcare systems or circular economies.Addressing “wicked problems” requires students to integrate both disciplinary and lay knowledge. Innovative tools, methods and practices are essential to help them to bridge these perspectives in both educational and professional contexts.Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?How can we assess interdisciplinarity?What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teachingOur innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary courses equip students with essential skills for societal transformation, such as empathy and perspective-taking, critical reflexivity, resilience and agency. Building on the Inner Development Goals, this approach explores the human growth needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, as formulated in the UN Agenda for 2030. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and valuing diverse knowledge sources, students learn to work together to address complex challenges.The Inner Development Goals Framework outlines 23 essential skills and qualities across five dimensions: Being, Thinking, Relating, Collaborating and Acting. It highlights the interplay of personal and collective skills within systems, which are interconnected and constantly evolving. By embedding the framework into our teaching, we provide a structured yet adaptable approach for cultivating the personal and social competencies required to navigate complexity, collaborate effectively and actively shape solutions for an increasingly complex world.&nbsp;The framework’s focus on integrating diverse perspectives aligns with the principles of interdisciplinarity, fostering a holistic understanding and approach to addressing challenges. Through projects such as the Transition Makers’ Toolbox, Placemaking and the Transition Cycle Method, we translate these principles into practice, offering learning experiences designed to prepare students for the future.Transition Makers’ ToolboxThe&nbsp;Transition Makers Toolbox is a collection of open-source educational materials for educators to implement in their classrooms, helping students develop the cognitive, affective and collaborative abilities needed for meaningful societal impact. It translates the Inner Development Goals into intended learning outcomes, paired with step-by-step learning activities, assessment and additional resources, tailored for educational contexts. Co-created within a community of Dutch higher education professionals, the Toolbox facilitates innovative teaching to help students cultivate essential skills and attitudes, with tools for deep listening, acting in alignment with your values, navigating uncertainty, inclusive decision-making, staying optimistic and being resilient.Placemaking&nbsp;The&nbsp;university-wide&nbsp;Placemaking programme exemplifies challenge-driven education by addressing local, place-based issues through an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach. In this programme, students collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, integrating academic disciplinary knowledge with lay knowledge to tackle local challenges.&nbsp;Grounded in the principles of the Inner Development Goals, the Placemaking approach promotes transformative learning as students begin with socio-spatial research on-site, blending diverse perspectives to develop a holistic understanding of an urban issue, such as liveability and accessibility of public spaces, climate adaptive cities or community-driven revitalised neighbourhoods. By engaging with stakeholders and experts, and co-creating and implementing small-scale interventions, students gain practical experience in navigating complexity and driving change.Transition Cycle MethodFurther extending our exploration, the&nbsp;Transition Cycle Method, applied in the course&nbsp;Change Making, offers a structured approach to learning basic skills for managing complex transition challenges within an interdisciplinary team. This method connects four phases: imagine, connect, act and assess. The Inner Development Goals framework has been integrated into this method to provide a foundational basis for cultivating the personal and social competencies essential for navigating complexity and fostering collaboration in interdisciplinary contexts.&nbsp;By embedding the IDGs, the method not only emphasises technical and analytical skills but fosters self-awareness, relational capacities and action-oriented mindsets. Our method’s effectiveness is in&nbsp;developing students’ skills to address complexity, uncertainty and resistance.&nbsp;Building on these educational approaches, we aim to provide a comprehensive framework for embedding transformative and interdisciplinary competencies within higher education curricula. By highlighting the necessity of aligning educational practices with real-world challenges and creating a reflective, responsive and caring learning environment with the framework, we contribute to the ongoing discourse on preparing students for the future. Through this integrated educational approach, we aspire to prepare the next generations to transcend disciplinary boundaries and drive meaningful societal change with insight, empathy and action.Debby Gerritsen is curriculum developer; Rosanne van Wieringen is educational innovator; Belle Jansen is project coordinator at the Teaching &amp; Learning Centre; Jasper ter Schegget is educational developer;&nbsp;Linda de Greef is innovation lead and Katusha Sol is educational developer, all at the&nbsp;Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Equip students with interdisciplinary skills for the future 

To navigate today’s complex challenges, students need more than just knowledge – they need transformative skills. Here’s how to embed the Inner Development Goals into your teaching

Equip students with interdisciplinary skills for the future with the Inner Development Goals

Interdisciplinary thinking is crucial to addressing complex questions but how should it work in practice? Two leading academic proponents of cross-disciplinary working draw on their own groundbreaking scholarship to explain

THE podcast: why we need interdisciplinarity in teaching and research

Differences in disciplinary theories and methods can pose challenges to interdisciplinary research. Research managers must build a strong foundation that establishes a framework for defining each discipline’s contribution. In this resource, I outline ways to do this.Laying the groundworkIf you have been provided with a broad study theme, assemble a gender-balanced team of researchers with relevant expertise at different stages of their careers. Next, encourage all team members to contribute ideas to narrow the focus. If discussions reach a deadlock, establish an agreement that sets clear boundaries on which sub-topics will be explored.Once your team agrees on a theme, members can identify a relevant public issue by analysing social media and news sites. There are several ways to do this, such as searching for specific keywords and checking trending topics on social media or Google Trends. Team members can also conduct more in-depth content and sentiment analysis using Python. All these methods are highly effective for initial research; not only are they free, but they also provide real-time data beyond what is available in academic articles.For instance, a research team studying online social movements would start by conducting observations to identify sentiment. They might review posts and comments on social media and learn that, for example, ride-hailing app drivers are protesting about the low fares imposed on them by the apps through which they offer their services. These drivers might be mobilising other social media users, especially fellow drivers, to engage in “spamming” – posting negative comments about and giving the apps low ratings. In this case, the research team can use Python to scan the comments, helping to refine research questions and establish clearer objectives.&nbsp;Resources on interdisciplinarityGive students the skills to communicate across disciplinesFour things to consider to create a safe and inspiring interdisciplinary learning environmentDefining the goals&nbsp;The goals and expected outcomes can serve as a guide in determining the contribution of each discipline within the team. Continuing with the above ride-hailing app example, the team can explore questions such as: “How can ride-hailing app drivers use ‘spamming’ to campaign and protest?” and “To what extent is this action effective in achieving the workers’ goals?”&nbsp;Next, the researchers can identify the drivers’ goals and assess the effectiveness of their actions in addressing them. In this example, researchers also need to examine the impact of the “spamming” process on the platforms affected. These observations should be linked to relevant existing research to refine the argument, clarify objectives and outline the expected impact of the study. Clearly defining these aspects as a team will lead to the next step, capacity mapping.Mapping capacities and analysing dataAt this stage, the team must map the input of each member and discipline involved. This involves highlighting each team member’s strengths, research methods, specific skills, access to research and their field’s latest theoretical and research advancements.Continuing with the above example, the study aims to understand the “spamming” process and its impact by conducting interviews and crawling and analysing data. Research should be supported by preliminary studies and the latest social movement theories. With this in mind, the team should identify their internal resources, such as access to information, theoretical knowledge and digital skills – especially technical abilities such as coding, scraping and digital data analysis. They should also factor in each member’s access to study participants.&nbsp;Then, based on this mapping, the team can determine an effective division of labour. The conceptual framework and approach can rely on expertise from the social sciences and humanities. Coding and large-scale digital data analysis tasks can rely on computational expertise either from within the team (if available) or externally. Then, all team members can collectively discuss their findings to produce a comprehensive analysis.&nbsp;Maintaining flexibilityConducting interdisciplinary projects fosters an open mindset toward the theories, methods and distinct perspectives that each field brings to the study. Without this recognition, one discipline may dominate, causing the research to drift from the core public issue. Additionally, other disciplines may end up serving merely as complementary additions rather than integral components of the research. Therefore, the key to successful interdisciplinary research is acknowledging the presence of other disciplines according to the needs of the public issue being addressed.&nbsp;Nevertheless, imbalances in workload distribution across disciplines are common. To address this, refer back to the research design, particularly the goals. If a team member seeks to dominate in a way that does not align with the research needs, you could develop a sub-study that accommodates their interests while still allowing them to contribute to the broader research framework. This approach is commonly applied in umbrella studies that consist of multiple sub-studies.For example, in the ride-hailing research project, there may be a member who wants to emphasise political and policy aspects, even though the initial focus is on the worker-platform relationship. In this case, they can develop a sub-study to examine policies that influence platform actions and responses. Rather than being a hindrance, this imbalance can instead serve as an opportunity to enrich the broader study.&nbsp;By aligning these processes with a topic that engages researchers and uses their appropriate skills, research managers can empower a balanced, hierarchy-free interdisciplinary team. This ensures the focus remains on generating knowledge that contributes to a fairer society.&nbsp;Estu Putri Wilujeng is a lecturer at the University of Indonesia.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Each discipline has a part to play

A guide to conducting preliminary research, setting goals and defining each member’s level of input to an interdisciplinary research project

What happens when an engineer, a theoretical physicist, a data scientist, a software developer, an educationalist and a social scientist walk into a room? In our case, it was the development of an online postgraduate certificate called 'Design for Learning Environments' which has been running since 2021. The programme is structured with five disciplinary-focused modules and a final case study-oriented synoptic module, designed to integrate skills and knowledge from each disciplinary module.&nbsp;Universities have the expertise to create interdisciplinary knowledge but disciplinary and institutional silos often thwart the networking of both people and disciplines. In our case, we all met through institutional projects, including the creation of a new Dubai Campus education strategy and digital learning assets. Through those discussions, we realised that we each brought different perspectives to the design of learning environments.&nbsp;These perspectives were often complementary, but also often in tension. This tension we found was useful to work through collaboratively, and we wanted to bring this to the 60-credit, postgraduate, part-time, distance learning programme. The programme is aimed at those working at the intersection of learning and technology. We have found the concept of tension useful to outline how we have balanced competing priorities across disciplines and professional practice.Beyond the classroom: from PhD preparation to leadershipFostering interdisciplinary learning in large-scale doctoral programmesSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingGetting down into the detail and teaching the course for four years has left us reflecting on the interdisciplinary approach that we adopted in line with our own practice which has broadened our network to include students of the programme.&nbsp;The tensions that we have and are still tuning and balancing are:Depth and breadthEach of our disciplinary perspectives on design, learning and technology have significant academic literature and professional practice to draw upon.&nbsp;There are many undergraduate and postgraduate programmes aligned to them.&nbsp;This presents a challenge for what is included in a 10-credit module itself, but also for ensuring that the level pitched is suitable for an audience with diverse academic and professional backgrounds. A student may go from a 10-credit data science module to a more humanities and social sciences-orientated module, usually while carrying out their own professional practice.&nbsp;We also had to ensure that we met the benchmarks for a level seven postgraduate course. Achieving a disciplinary depth and interdisciplinary breadth was a balance and tension that we had to remain cognisant of, and we had to challenge each other when we drifted into the depths of a discipline or a surface-level engagement with disciplinary knowledge and practice. Consideration of the diversity of the student cohort and a consistent pedagogical model across the modules have proved crucial.Academic literature and practice&nbsp;The tension between theory and practice is&nbsp;well trodden within the academy. And what theory means to a scientist in contrast to a social scientist is very different. Having a dialogue across modules and with students to ensure interdisciplinarity doesn’t confuse, but enhances knowledge, skills and practice, has been at the core of our work.&nbsp;We reconciled this by balancing the tension of theory and practice as praxis to ensure that academic literature was used as a critical tool, to consider design decisions and action in students’ own contexts. A by-product benefit of this was that it ensured all assessment involved each student’s own context and practice, following authentic assessment principles and countering the emergence of generative AI.Grounding and integration in practiceIn the final synoptic module, we challenge students to achieve sufficient disciplinary grounding but also to integrate across disciplinary and professional perspectives. This requires students to balance a practical response to a case study, but also to draw upon at least two disciplinary perspectives to find common ground in harmony with a viable, feasible and desirable prototype solution.&nbsp;The certificate is built on the ethos that successful learning environments are created through designerly and interdisciplinary practices. Grounding and depth in the disciplines is developed within the prerequisite five modules on coding, data, design, learning theory and the impacts of technology on society, with integration both taught and assessed in the final synoptic module.Who integrates and how is it assessed?A module that looks for integration across disciplinary perspectives challenges us as much as, if not more than, students. The case study synoptic module requires students to frame the problem and provide a design response. This requires some form of letting go from us and presents a challenge for grading and assessment.Summative assessment is achieved with bespoke criteria (described below). A first marker addresses the integrated whole and how well integration has been achieved, while second and third markers are experts in the disciplinary perspectives used by students.&nbsp;Implementing integration was a significant challenge for us as an academic team. We went on our own learning journey to understand what was needed to be truly interdisciplinary, and realised that the final synoptic module needed to be taught and graded differently.&nbsp;Assessing interdisciplinary practiceDrawing upon research literature on interdisciplinarity assessment, we constructed a set of grading criteria, which assessed:communicationdisciplinary grounding&nbsp;advancement through integration and common ground&nbsp;critical awareness.Providing the quality assurance for such an innovative programme required an invested external examiner. Ours has provided us with strong advice, combined with enthusiasm for the programme, and has been key to the iterative programme modifications.&nbsp;After designing and delivering the programme, we find we are even more enthusiastic for interdisciplinary teaching, learning and assessment. We have embraced the ethos of the programme ourselves with learning by doing in a reflective and critical manner, and our teaching has opened avenues for research and impact with the students. We hope this will help others beginning their own journey to interdisciplinarity.&nbsp;Adam Matthews is a senior research fellow at the University of Birmingham.Acknowledgement: Thank you to Nicola Wilkin, Tim Jackson, Phil Ramsden (external examiner), Jaimie Miller-Friedmann, Jon Watkins and Richard Mason for their contributions to this article.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How to balance tension in interdisciplinary teaching 

An interdisciplinary approach to programme development comes with inherent tensions, which need to be balanced and worked through. Here are our tips  

How to balance tension in interdisciplinary teaching and learning

Engineers work alongside social scientists to design inclusive technologies. Environmental scientists collaborate with policy experts to address ageing infrastructure. Designers partner with computer scientists to create intuitive user interfaces and experiences. The 21st-century job market is complex and interconnected so, to prepare students, we must rethink how we teach and break down barriers between academic disciplines.&nbsp;Interdisciplinary approaches don’t necessarily come easily, though – projects do not have set solutions, and we, as educators, must push ourselves and our students out of comfort zones. So, part of our mission is also to help students navigate uncertainty with confidence. We must be self-aware – meaning we understand our own skills and weaknesses, including what biases and preconceived notions we might hold. When we teach through an interdisciplinary lens, we encourage students to go forward with curiosity and openness. Sometimes this involves foregrounding the perspectives of others. And it means that all stakeholders’ perspectives are not only considered but given due value.&nbsp;Interdisciplinary projects – a case studyOur engineering education department at Virginia Tech offers programmes that integrate technical knowledge with pedagogical theories from the humanities and social sciences. These courses allow students to explore how engineering impacts society and how to communicate technical concepts effectively to diverse audiences. This fusion of disciplines fosters not only technical competence but the empathy and communication skills essential for leadership in the workforce.&nbsp;Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingCan you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teachingLeveraging 20 years of interdisciplinary research and pedagogical design, I collaborated with other faculty to build and now teach an interdisciplinary projects course for sophomores and juniors across the university. In this class, students from any discipline – engineering, business, science, arts and design programmes – work together to solve real-world problems. In these projects, students must navigate the complexities of interdisciplinary collaboration. The skills they gain is a benefit they repeatedly cite as crucial in interviews for internships and jobs.&nbsp;A case study on housingOne ongoing project involves designing affordable, sustainable housing for low-income families in Alaska. At first glance, this might seem relatively straightforward – the whole team works together to hone each area of expertise. Students in engineering focus on structural design and materials; business students develop financial models and market strategies; and design students ensure that the housing is aesthetically appealing and user-friendly.&nbsp;But the reality of this work is far more complex. An interdisciplinary approach mandates collaboration across multiple fields of expertise and perspectives to evaluate housing issues and co-design solutions to housing insecurity.I can give a specific example of the complexity I allude to. At one point in Alaska’s recent history, modular housing figured into pandemic responses to housing needs. In exploring this issue, we uncovered specific insights into how off-site modular construction was used – and perhaps hyped – to address pandemic concerns over housing. This in turn raised wider questions about how networks, institutions and historical experiences with modular construction are organised and positioned to respond to major societal disruptions like the pandemic. So, on the topic of modular housing, interdisciplinary views are necessary.Consider that Alaska is part of the circumpolar north, a vast and diverse area that is home to roughly 7 million people, while Alaska itself has just over 700,000 inhabitants. Contemporary issues include harsh and variable weather conditions; extractive industries and political pressure to define property rights and claim resources; and small communities scattered apart and away from urban areas (in Alaska, about half the population live in Anchorage). Importantly, this cold-climate area includes diverse regional climates and rich tapestries of Indigenous cultures, languages and legacies. Deep sensitivity exists when it comes to Indigenous peoples in the area. While they draw on immense experience-based knowledge, share historic stories and lore, and show exceptional resilience and adaptability, they have also suffered under colonialism and still experience health and financial disparities.&nbsp;As the Alaska-based project shows, interdisciplinary approaches can be exceptionally complex, and priorities shift based on the perspective you embody. Cold-climate engineers, builders and housing experts’ opinions matter, of course, and so do those of residents and communities. We need to consider that some housing projects must be designed for and built in remote areas. And what about housing projects and policies that failed in the past? Lessons from those should also be considered.&nbsp;Interdisciplinary teaching is not just an optionCreating and implementing interdisciplinary approaches poses challenges that many undergraduate students are not exposed to early in their education. Nonetheless, the rewards of interdisciplinary approaches far outweigh the effort.The world is not divided neatly into disciplines, so our classrooms should not be, either. Employers seek graduates who can think critically, collaborate across disciplines and adapt to evolving challenges. By embracing interdisciplinary teaching, we can prepare students to contribute meaningfully to solving the world’s most pressing problems. As educators, we have a responsibility to empower our students to connect, collaborate and create. Interdisciplinary teaching is not just an option; it is a necessity.Lisa D. McNair is professor of engineering education and executive deputy director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts and Technology at Virginia Tech.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

The siloed approach to education – where students in technical, business, humanities and arts disciplines learn separately – is no longer adequate, writes Lisa McNair

Navigating uncertainty with interdisciplinary teaching

We’re entering an era in which we’ll need to find ways to adapt to the changing world we’ve created, in order to live in greater harmony with our planet and allow future generations to thrive.&nbsp;We need innovative solutions, fresh thinking and to work across disciplinary silos&nbsp;like never before. Universities are natural incubators for this innovation but, even here, we need to push further in terms of how we collaborate, share knowledge and create ideas. Crucially, we need to think about how students are engaging in these processes from day one.&nbsp;We need to consider social, environmental and economical pillars of sustainability in an integrated way, to avoid the negative consequences of a narrow focus hampering progress in connected areas. Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, which I’ll refer to here collectively as cross-disciplinarity, are the engines of sustainability.&nbsp;How can we give students the agency to deal with the climate crisis?Three ways to ensure you are teaching for lasting societal impactEmbedding the SDGs into curricula via an interdisciplinary approachWhat we mean by these terms, however, and how we train students in this space is often left to chance, or the organic development of these skills through experience. We provide the vehicle but neglect the need for driving lessons.Indeed, the expectation that putting individuals from different disciplines together, or studying a range of disciplines will result in the magical ability to integrate them, often still prevails, without acknowledging the specific skills required to operate in this space.&nbsp;Co-creationMy colleagues and I have emphasised a skills-based approach to cross-disciplinarity in our teaching practice for a number of years. An increasingly relevant skill in all degrees, more institutions and employers now recognise its value as a graduate attribute. Combined with the growing need for sustainability literacy, we&nbsp;need to ensure students are able to explicitly engage with the processes that underpin these areas for maximum effectiveness.During the development of our interdisciplinary degree programmes focused on sustainability (BSc/MSci Environmental Change and Sustainability), my colleagues and I engaged students and staff from allied degrees (including liberal arts and sciences, and environmental sciences) as co-creators for the core modules in first and second year.&nbsp;These modules were to provide the skills and space for students to begin to integrate their disciplinary knowledge, but also to learn how to do this to tackle sustainability challenges. We wanted to hear about what students felt they were missing currently, or what they found particularly beneficial, to foster their engagement and development.&nbsp;Having a dynamic team of students and staff from diverse disciplines proved an effective mechanism to address and align with the aims of the modules. The outcome was a pair of co-created modules that provide real-world challenges – using the university as a Living Lab in the first year, and external organisations in the second year.&nbsp;Be explicitThis model, in itself, is nothing particularly new, with many institutions offering engagement with Living Labs through projects and modules. What we have, however, explicitly included in these modules is training in the skills needed to be successful in this space. How do we ensure that students are not left to create the interdisciplinary magic on their own?&nbsp;Early on, they attend workshops on what the different types of cross-disciplinary practice are and where they may be applicable, in addition to collaborative approaches and systems thinking. We explicitly acknowledge the need for disciplinary respect, considered communication, patience, curiosity, openness, reflection and flexibility.&nbsp;I cannot express enough how much of a lightbulb moment it is when actively discussing these with students, particularly when we play some simple communication and word play games. Rather than assuming these skills will develop naturally during group work and during the process, presenting them upfront enables students to go into their project work with deliberate consideration of these key elements.The students learn from a dynamic, cross-disciplinary team, including academics from Earth sciences, philosophy, materials science and biosciences, and professional services staff from estates, facilities and the sustainability team. They gain knowledge about cutting-edge research and gain real-world insight into implementing sustainable solutions in organisations.In their first year, students apply this knowledge to reviewing the university’s sustainability policies and practices, progressing in their second year to developing solutions for external stakeholders. Reflection on their use of cross-disciplinary skills and their team dynamic is embedded in the assessment, reinforcing its importance. Their project work is then shared with key stakeholders, who provide feedback and explore potential implementation to close the loop of co-creation.&nbsp;Not all modules or programmes will have the capacity to embed cross-disciplinary practice to such an extent. However, we have taken some of these elements and embedded them successfully in shorter workshops as part of other modules – for example, in our cross-disciplinary Human Sciences degree introductory module.&nbsp;Being explicitly introduced to the mindset and concepts of inter- and trans-disciplinarity, and being able to experience, even briefly, how it feels to be communicate across disciplines, facilitates greater respect and understanding of how to operate in a cross-disciplinary space during their degree. Only by ensuring the development of the foundational skills underpinning the process of developing effective solutions for sustainability will we develop the next generation of students equipped to act as climate-conscious citizens and sustainability leaders for the future.&nbsp;Julia Myatt is academic director of sustainability education and professor of collaborative education at the University of Birmingham.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Give students the skills to communicate across disciplines

In sustainability education, inter- and transdisciplinary teaching alone is not enough – students need to develop the skills to learn in a cross-disciplinary way. Co-creation could be the answer.

You can’t have interdisciplinary collaboration without psychological safety. Here’s why.In today’s complex and interconnected world, interdisciplinary teamwork is essential for innovation to addressing complex societal challenges. Psychological safety is crucial. As Harvard Business School academic&nbsp;Amy Edmondson’s&nbsp;extensive research has revealed, psychological safety fosters team climates where members feel confident to speak up, externalise their knowledge and voice disagreement without fear of being judged or cast out.&nbsp;Four things to consider to create a safe and inspiring interdisciplinary learning environmentSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingPractical strategies for overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary project-based learningThis kind of radical openness is the key to interdisciplinary collaboration, which relies on team members being willing to share, deliberate and integrate knowledge from diverse domains. By fostering psychological safety, educators can help students feel more comfortable expressing their thoughts and engaging in constructive dialogue, leading to more innovative and effective problem-solving.The challenge of psychologically safe collaboration online&nbsp;Establishing psychological safety is not easy at the best of times, but online learning environments throw up additional barriers that can jeopardise interdisciplinary exchange.&nbsp;Our research found that a lack of in-person interaction, increased self-consciousness online, technical issues, poor interpersonal rapport and difficulty in coordinating tasks across a dispersed team can work against the establishment of trust and open communication.The good news is that a selection of key strategies can help educators scaffold genuine interdisciplinary knowledge sharing and innovation. Using University of Sydney researchers Lucila Carvahlo and Peter Goodyear’s model of&nbsp;teaching as service design to structure our analysis, we distinguished specific social, epistemic and set design considerations that support psychological safety in online student teams. Here’s how to achieve interdisciplinarity by designing for psychological safety online:Get to know each otherStudents can feel more vulnerable and reluctant to engage openly online. To encourage students to make secure interpersonal connections, dedicate time and opportunities for students to establish rapport with each other – and you! This is especially important during the early phases of team formation.&nbsp;Icebreakers and fun activities:&nbsp;designing informal activities into the learning experience is not a waste of time; it’s integral to the establishment of supportive team bonds. Start with light-hearted activities like online dress-ups or a pet show-and-tell to break the ice and reduce hierarchical barriers.Establish team norms: balance informality with formal expectations. Set clear guidelines for online interactions, such as mandatory webcam use and respectful communication. Ask students to negotiate a team charter to formalise their own group norms.Encourage open and honest communicationTo catalyse discussion, lead by example. Be inquisitive, show the limits to your own understanding and proactively invite alternative perspectives.Model openness: show that you are comfortable with your own fallibility – not knowing something is okay, even for the teacher! Demonstrate curiosity through exploratory questioning, using active listening techniques and encouraging equal participation through conversational turn-taking.Conflict resolution training: cognitive conflict is a feature of interdisciplinary collaboration – not a bug. Provide students with tools and strategies to handle conflicts productively. Teach them to distinguish between task-related disagreements and personal conflicts.Design challenging tasks that invite diverse contributionsBy their very nature, real-world problems demand contributions across disciplinary boundaries. Setting up learning activities and assessments around complex challenges gives students&nbsp;tacit permission to venture outside of their epistemic comfort zone and experiment with new perspectives.Assign projects that require diverse contributions: make the focal challenge big and multifaceted enough that it cannot be completed by a single person. This encourages students to collaborate and integrate different perspectives.Provide success criteria (e.g., marking rubrics) that reinforce the necessity of interdisciplinary cooperation and reward evidence of it.Assessment design: ensure that group assignments are a significant part of the final grade to motivate students to invest in effective teamwork.Provide continuous support and feedbackVenturing across unfamiliar disciplinary territory to tackle a complex challenge can feel risky. And novice interdisciplinarians will not automatically trust the process. We found that students highly value regular feedback from their instructor, whose support functions as a safety net, without impinging on the team’s independence and autonomy.Regular check-ins: schedule frequent check-ins with teams to provide guidance and address any emerging issues. Use these sessions to reinforce the importance of collaboration, deliberation and mutual support.Iterative feedback: offer ongoing feedback to normalise constructive failure and encourage revision of ideas. This helps students become more resilient and open to change.Make the learning platform as invisible as possibleComplex problems and interdisciplinary collaboration are challenging enough without added confusion around learning resources, assessments or basic technical glitches.Have your tech tools ready: as the instructor, you can make online interaction as seamless as possible by getting up to speed with your chosen videoconferencing platform, including features such as breakout rooms and activity monitoring. Make sure all online learning resources are user-friendly and easily navigable.Collaboration sessions: schedule frequent group work as part of timetabled classes to underscore the importance of regular, synchronous collaboration and help students make this a routine.Staying in touch: encourage teams to use an instant messaging app of their choice for a more spontaneous, relaxed communication channel.Cultivating psychological safety should be a key component in teaching for interdisciplinarity, but it requires deliberate instructional design and continuous support – especially in online teaching and learning. By facilitating interpersonal connections, encouraging open communication, designing collaborative tasks and providing regular feedback, educators can create a safe and effective learning environment. These strategies not only enhance teamwork but also prepare students for real-world collaboration and problem-solving.Helena Robinson is senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney and Fabian Held is senior interdisciplinarity lecturer at the University of Sydney.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

For interdisciplinary teamwork, psychological safety is key

Foster a sense of radical openness in your interdisciplinary online learning environment by establishing psychological safety – here’s how

What’s the crucial element for interdisciplinary teamwork? Psychological safety

Many higher education institutions have robust science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) curricula and strong outcomes for training technologists; far fewer have similarly strong mechanisms for training those STEM majors in community engagement and exposing them to perspectives on culture, history and power.An interdisciplinary course, Engineering with Purpose: Community Engagement and Emerging Technologies, sought to address this gap at Georgia Tech. The course was collaboratively designed by students and faculty; its purpose was to equip students to be technologists who engage residents’ expertise and lived experiences in developing technological innovations that will impact their communities.&nbsp;Here, we share three key lessons from the pilot semester.&nbsp;Lesson 1: Course development and execution should be interdisciplinary and collaborativeEngineering students were empowered to co-design a course that explored themes they felt were conspicuously absent from their course requirements – such as understanding implicit bias, collaborating with communities and analysing engineering mindsets. Over three years, 10 students from STEM fields contributed to creating the course syllabus, developing activities and crafting learning outcomes, guided by an interdisciplinary group of faculty partners and a faculty mentor at the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education (SCoRE). A grant-funded programme that paired engineering majors with community partners from different disciplinary backgrounds on partner-identified projects was also an important test bed for course themes and objectives.&nbsp;Active, flipped, micro, virtual learning: a toolbox for interdisciplinary teachingDeveloping interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholarsInterdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our partsThe course was taught for the first time in spring 2024 by a collaborating instructor pair – SCoRE’s associate director, Ruthie Yow, who has a background in history and anthropology, and the centre’s graduate research assistant, Bettina Arkhurst, then a PhD student in mechanical engineering. The lead student author of this piece, Sophia Ebbutt, a civil and environmental engineering major, was the teaching assistant. Having an instructor team representing engineering and the humanities created a strong pedagogical foundation and a class atmosphere that welcomed students from all disciplines into productive reflection and dialogue.&nbsp;Lesson 2:&nbsp;Invite and reflect on expertise from outside academia&nbsp;Our course drew on multiple frameworks and forms of expertise to understand and centre local knowledge, and cultural and historical context. The instructors recruited guest presenters – mostly community-based experts working at the intersection of environmental justice and emerging technologies – from SCoRE’s network of community and academic partnerships. A presenter who leads a community health initiative focused on air quality in a historically Black neighbourhood described organising community members to participate in a radon detection programme in their homes. They explained leveraging the trust they had built among residents through years of community events and programmes. &nbsp;One field trip visited a local community centre to learn about the community organiser it was named after, Rosel Fann. Like early environmental justice activists in Warren County, North Carolina, which students had learned about, Fann was a community organiser who never held elected office but had enormous local influence. Through Fann’s story, students were exposed both to the function of Atlanta’s unique neighborhood planning unit system – which Fann used to advocate for the families and children in her unit – and to the impact of Black residents like Fann who battled systemic injustice to create better outcomes for their neighbours.&nbsp;Although much of the relevant scholarship focuses on community engagement by professionals in public health, technology is also a key field in which building trust between researchers and communities is critical. It is essential for technologists to develop approaches that sustain mutually beneficial partnerships – such as focusing on community assets, not deficits; listening first and learning about local culture and history; and creating mechanisms within a project for shared decision-making, ensuring community members a permanent “seat at the table”.&nbsp;Lesson 3: A discussion-based format benefits both students and instructorsStudents in the pilot semester of the course were equally divided between STEM and non-STEM majors. They learned from one another both informally and through the “teach-back” format of final presentations. Students’ takeaways from the course suggested that they interacted with the material in ways specific to their backgrounds and career ambitions. An economics major discussed the critical role of strong community engagement in developing technologies that reduce risk and enhance prosperity in communities, while a public policy major described the contingent nature of “ethics” – including ethical decisions regarding “acceptable” harms. A nuclear engineering major called out the negative effects of reductionism and technological determinism, describing how engineering education rarely highlights the myriad ways technology is integrated into and influences&nbsp;our social world.&nbsp;Student feedback was also helpful for this course’s instructors and others interested in designing community engagement courses in STEM settings. Students described the importance of understanding engineering’s limitations, respecting community knowledge and always looking for perspectives beyond your own. They all suggested that a willingness to question knowledge and authority – and to reimagine processes that have historically excluded community participation – will lead to more ethical and inclusive technological solutions.&nbsp;These insights can help shape future iterations of this course and courses that seek to integrate interdisciplinary approaches and community engagement training into STEM education.&nbsp;Ruthie Yow is associate director of the Center for Sustainable Communities Research and Education at Georgia Tech. This article was co-written with Sophia Ebbutt (civil and environmental engineering major), Angela Iyabor (economics), Kayla Kessler (business administration), Lucas Morrison (nuclear and radiological engineering) and Alex Simons (public policy), all students at Georgia Tech.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Advice from an interdisciplinary community engagement course

STEM curricula in the US don’t often expose students to perspectives on culture, history and power nor equip them with effective community engagement skills. Here, an instructor and students share lessons from designing and teaching an interdisciplinary course that sought to address that gap 

Lessons from an interdisciplinary community engagement course for engineers

Addressing public health crises, climate change and poverty requires collaboration among experts in a range of fields. This is because these multifaceted problems do not adhere to disciplinary boundaries, and neither can their solutions. Universities must rise to the occasion by preparing students to think and act across domains, equipping them with the tools to innovate in contexts where resources are often limited.Undergraduate students are well suited to interdisciplinary environments. As explorers at the beginning of their academic and professional journeys, they approach problems with curiosity, openness and a sense of idealism that drives them to envision transformative solutions. They are at a point in their lives where they are more open to experimentation and the pursuit of novel ideas. Furthermore, they have not yet been confined by the conventions of a single discipline, allowing them to engage flexibly with concepts from multiple fields.&nbsp;Making interdisciplinarity workFor interdisciplinary work to flourish among students, universities must create conditions that nurture their innate potential and curiosity. This effort requires strategies that embed cross-disciplinary thinking into the curriculum and co-curricular activities. A multidisciplinary university is particularly well equipped to lead this transformation, leveraging its breadth of expertise to foster collaboration and innovation.One approach may involve the introduction of interdisciplinary core courses focused on global challenges such as climate action, sustainable cities or global health. These courses could be co-taught by faculty from different departments, providing students with a model for integrating diverse perspectives. For example, a training programme on geospatial applications of disaster management at my institution’s School of Architecture and Planning brings together academics, researchers, NGOs and community representatives and government officials to teach students about disaster vulnerability and resilience development.Another avenue is project-based learning initiatives, where students from different disciplines collaborate on semester-long projects that address real-world issues. One example is a course that uses augmented reality and virtual reality technology in collaboration with a medical college to improve medical education and patient outcomes.&nbsp;Hackathons or innovation competitions can also be powerful tools for encouraging interdisciplinary engagement. Departments could organise events centred on pressing themes such as food security, public health or technology for social good. In these environments, students can brainstorm, prototype and present solutions that draw on the strengths of their diverse teams.Research programmes could also play a pivotal role in cultivating interdisciplinary work. This involves establishing structured opportunities for students to collaborate on research projects that bridge disciplines. For instance, the bio incubator at my institution has prompted the creation of Blackfrog technology by students and alumni to develop portable vaccine fridges for remote areas or places with restricted access to power. Such initiatives may not only advance academic enquiry but also address societal needs, instilling a sense of purpose in student researchers.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingFour things to consider to create a safe and inspiring interdisciplinary learning environmentWhat is interdisciplinarity in teaching and how can we make it work?Ways to encourage interdisciplinary workThe physical and virtual spaces of a university can be designed to encourage interdisciplinary interaction. Innovation labs or shared co-working areas such as multidisciplinary research laboratories, equipped with resources like prototyping tools, collaborative software and accessible mentorship, provide fertile ground for collaboration. Additionally, subscribing to business plans for virtual platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Slack allows students from different campuses to connect and work together easily.You might also consider creating incentives to recognise and reward interdisciplinary work. Academic credit for collaborative projects, special certificates for completing cross-disciplinary research or awards for innovative problem-solving could encourage students to step out of their disciplinary comfort zones.&nbsp;Also, exposure to role models who exemplify the power of interdisciplinary thinking can inspire students to pursue similar paths. Inviting alumni or professionals who have successfully integrated multiple fields into their careers to speak to or mentor students can create a compelling narrative about the benefits of such approaches.&nbsp;All schools at my institution engage in these activities regularly. For example, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences has an “alumni guest talk” series that featured a ”getting a PhD abroad” talk by an alumnus who continued his studies in Australia. The College of Health Professions has a similar series in which another alumna gave a talk about multidisciplinarity in special needs care.&nbsp;These role models may provide pragmatic examples of how interdisciplinary work can lead to meaningful impact and rewarding careers.The benefitsThe benefits of fostering interdisciplinary engagement are substantial. Students gain the ability to approach problems holistically, drawing from diverse fields to devise innovative solutions. This type of education cultivates adaptability, a trait increasingly valued in a world where career paths often span multiple domains. Furthermore, interdisciplinary experiences enhance students’ teamwork and communication skills, equipping them to collaborate effectively in professional settings.&nbsp;Universities that prioritise interdisciplinary work can also see broader institutional benefits. Such initiatives create a culture of innovation, where collaboration becomes a norm rather than an exception. Students who engage in interdisciplinary projects often graduate with not just technical expertise but also a mindset that seeks to address challenges inclusively and sustainably. This dual capability makes them valuable contributors to society and attractive hires.Interdisciplinary work has the potential to transform both education and society. For universities, the challenge is clear: to break down silos and create an environment where students can think, act and innovate across boundaries. The solutions are within reach, and now is the time to act. By fostering interdisciplinary engagement, universities can prepare students to meet the complex demands of the world, ensuring that they are not just educated but empowered to make a difference.Sambit Dash is an assistant professor (selection grade) at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.&nbsp;If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How to get students interested in interdisciplinary work

Providing real-world opportunities, incentives and spaces for interdisciplinary work enables undergraduate students to explore important solutions to complex issues

As more academics become interested in inter- and transdisciplinary learning and teaching, what is the best way for us to share good practices? How can we use them to set standards and for accreditation? And what would it mean for inter- and transdisciplinary education to be institutionalised? Communities of practice play an important role, but are not enough. We also need professional associations and international peak bodies.Communities of practice work well within institutions to share good practices and lessons learned. For example, starting this year, everyone enrolling in an undergraduate degree at my university will be expected to develop the “capability to employ discipline-based knowledge in transdisciplinary problem-solving” by the time they graduate. A university-wide community of practice is playing a key role in sharing practice lessons and developing new teaching collaborations. This includes developing resources for teaching about teamwork and streamlining that teaching across multiple courses, covering all parts of the university.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingWhy we need a new model for professional development credentialsWhat a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teachingCommunities of practice can also work across institutions. Working groups or special interest groups attached to professional associations are a common model. For example, a working group on integration experts and expertise has been figuring out what expertise is required for cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral integration, what it means to be an integration expert and how integration expertise can be fostered and institutionalised.Another working group has reviewed how to make toolkits more effective in bringing together methods, processes, concepts, heuristics, frameworks and other resources for inter- and transdisciplinary education.&nbsp;Beyond communities of practiceBut when it comes to setting standards, certification and institutionalising inter- and transdisciplinary education, communities of practice are not enough. Unlike disciplines that achieve these goals through well-established, large and powerful professional associations and peak bodies, inter- and transdisciplinarity are still relatively unorganised. They are characterised by small and relatively new associations, and an absence of peak bodies.I am the president of one of those small associations, the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance). The two cross-institutional working groups described earlier are two of the communities of practice that we support. We will soon establish a new working group on education and training to provide an ongoing forum for discussing and sharing the issues related to inter- and transdisciplinary teaching.For a professional association such as ours, to move from supporting communities of practice to leading discussions about standards and accreditation, as well as to forming peak bodies focused on institutionalisation, we need to focus on the following three issues.First, how can we be truly global? The relative newness of inter- and transdisciplinarity, at least in widespread acceptance of them, means that we have an opportunity to advance globally, combining expertise and experience from around the world, rather than first establishing ways forward in the Global North and exporting them to the Global South.&nbsp;Second, how can we muster the necessary resources? The ITD Alliance is at that most difficult of stages in the life of a professional association, when the opportunities for action and impact are considerably greater than the financial and personnel resources available to meet them. We are looking for imaginative ways to attract the necessary volunteer efforts and fuel a virtuous cycle, where impactful activity attracts members and funding, leading to more meaningful activity, attracting more members and funding, and so on.Third, we also need to ask whether inter- and transdisciplinarity is actually the right focus. The growing interest in inter- and transdisciplinarity has been stoked by concern about urgent and complex societal and environmental problems. We have realised that discipline-based approaches are not enough and that not only multiple disciplines but also communities, decision-makers and other affected parties should be involved. But inter- and transdisciplinarity are not the only recognised ways of crossing disciplinary and sectoral boundaries. Other approaches include systems thinking, action research, post-normal science, community operational research, design science, the science of team science, implementation science and the decision sciences.&nbsp;Many of these approaches are much older than inter- and transdisciplinarity, but what unites us is that almost all the professional associations that we have given birth to are small, with memberships in the hundreds or, sometimes, the low thousands. This is tiny compared with the behemoths that are discipline-based. Small size, coupled with the fragmentation of effort across multiple diverse and unconnected professional associations, means that we are largely invisible, and have no influence at research policy and funding tables.&nbsp;An effective peak body needs to harness all that disparate effort, maintaining the distinctiveness of existing approaches and exploiting the overlaps. This would have benefits for what we teach too. For example, on the topic of integration, there would be huge benefit in bringing together insights from inter- and transdisciplinarians, systems thinkers, action researchers, post-normal scientists, implementation scientists and more. Much could be profitably done, but we need to find a way out of the vicious cycle of fragmentation, limited resources and little influence.&nbsp;Where do we go from here? If we are serious about impacting complex societal and environmental problems, we need to consider not only the micro-level and communities of practice, but also to lift our gaze to the macro-level. We need to look at the ongoing development of inter- and transdisciplinarity and other approaches, and how they can most effectively work together through professional associations and peak bodies.&nbsp;Gabriele Bammer is professor of integration and implementation sciences at the Australian National University, and president of the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity.&nbsp;If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Move interdisciplinary professional associations forward

Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching is going beyond communities of practice – but it’s still too small to compete with discipline-based professional associations. Here are the questions we should be asking to move forward

Universities need to move interdisciplinary professional associations to the next step

Image credit: Claudine GossettElectrifying our transport systems, pivoting to renewable energy and decarbonising 21st-century society will require batteries – and lots of them. How we store and discharge energy will be crucial for tomorrow’s world.Solomon Oyakhire, a Schmidt Science Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and&nbsp;incoming assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, is a specialist in next-generation battery design and says designing energy-dense, safe, low-cost and diverse battery chemistries represents some of the great scientific challenges of our era.“If we are going to completely decarbonise our transportation sector, we need to come up with a fleet of batteries that satisfy different types of demands,” Oyakhire says. “One of the reasons why electric vehicles are so expensive today is because of their batteries, which account for 30 to 50 per cent of their cost. ”They also determine how far you can drive before having to recharge. Developing batteries that store charge more efficiently can improve electric vehicles’ range; improved performance means more people will drive them.The search for new and improved batteries is at the mercy of chemistry. Chemistry of the electrodes (materials that store charge in a battery) as well as chemistry of electrolytes (media that shuttle charge across battery electrodes) dictate the properties of batteries. The search for improved batteries necessitates the exploration of billions of electrode and electrolyte combinations and the complex interactions &nbsp;between them. It is inefficient to explore such spaces using the conventional approach of trial and error in the race to achieve climate security.&nbsp;Looking to adjacent fields, particularly AI and causal inference, may provide a solution. When Oyakhire was completing his PhD in chemical engineering at Stanford University, his advisors, Stacey Bent and Yi Cui, were champions of interdisciplinary science. “They were masters at uniting disparate fields,” he says.One of Cui’s most influential papers was inspired by biology. Cui discovered how cryogenic transmission electron microscopy, hitherto used to preserve delicate samples in biology, could be applied to battery design. “He adapted that tool towards identifying some of the most crucial and fundamental insights in batteries,” Oyakhire says. “Having an advisor like this and seeing this way of marrying disparate fields was instrumental for me.”Oyakhire has developed machine learning tools to extract meaningful insights from the small, high-dimensional data sets typical of battery research. His overarching goal is to create an in-silico battery – a comprehensive machine learning approach to modelling different battery components, their interactions and their resulting ensemble properties, thereby accelerating the pace of innovation.&nbsp;He argues the status quo in higher education needs to change to promote interdisciplinary research. If we need an example of what this might look like in practice, we need only look at Bell Labs. “It was really founded on this idea that you could bring together people with different expertise, promote a lot of crosstalk via porous boundaries between departments, and enable the collective to come up with ideas that were truly revolutionary,” Oyakhire says.Research could be problem-focused rather than organised by department. Universities can create clusters around broad subjects such as energy and sustainability and put like-minded scientists together. What they come up with might change the world.Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

The future of the decarbonised society depends upon the discovery and design of next-generation batteries. Interdisciplinary research is vital to making that future a reality

The hard cell: how interdisciplinary science can unlock next-generation batteries for a decarbonised world

When developing interdisciplinary courses, are educators staying too close to what’s familiar? While we all want to create inspiring and valuable courses, often academics can focus too much on the content of the course, opting to add a new perspective to well-known subject matter from their own field.Consequently, we fail to pay attention to the design aspects that contribute to an integrative learning environment for students in interdisciplinary education. The differences in norms, values and assumptions that exist between students from different disciplines may hamper their interdisciplinary collaboration. Instead, let’s consider the material, temporal and socio-cultural aspects of the learning environment. Here, I’ll offer four considerations that teachers and educational developers can make to foster an integrative learning climate in an interdisciplinary course or programme.&nbsp;1. Where will the education take place?&nbsp;Creating a learning environment where every student feels safe means the choice of location for education is vital. The physical location in which interdisciplinary education takes place needs to equally represent different disciplines. Make a conscious choice: does teaching take place in a building normally occupied by one of the disciplines involved? Or rather in a neutral location, equally (un)familiar to all students involved?&nbsp;Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingWhat is interdisciplinarity in teaching and how can we make it work?The furnishings of the physical location can raise unconscious expectations among the students about the learning activities and desired behaviour that they should display. Interdisciplinary education often aims to encourage interaction and collaboration among students. Consider a space divided into groups of tables and chairs, allowing students to focus on their fellow students and encouraging them to learn from each other.2. Will you use specific (integrative) tools?&nbsp;Of course, encouraging the exchange of perspectives between students from different disciplines is core to interdisciplinary education. Provide students with tutorials, guides and discipline-specific glossaries, offering supporting information that can help them to understand the theories, methods and perspectives used in other disciplines, and to use them in integrative processes.&nbsp;Use specific tools for interdisciplinary education to support collaboration and integration, such as the CoNavigator. Boundary objects can facilitate communication between students from different disciplines – for example, when they collaborate on a scientific paper or performance.&nbsp;If the goal of the course is to achieve integration, think about how the teaching format guides the students’ integrative learning process. Perhaps look at integrative (research) formats that specifically guide the integrative process to inform the design of your interdisciplinary course. Examples of such integrative methods applied in an educational context, referred to as integrative teaching methods, can be found online.&nbsp;3. How heavy is the students’ workload?&nbsp;Students need time to become accustomed to the aspects of interdisciplinary education that are new to them. Their workload will be different from that experienced by students in monodisciplinary education. Students gain many new impressions in interdisciplinary education, including contact with their peers from other disciplines, with different worldviews, values and norms. In addition, they’re often introduced to unfamiliar teaching and assessment methods.&nbsp;Pay attention to the inclusivity of the learning and assessment formats, as different learning and assessment formats in interdisciplinary courses have a tendency to benefit one group of students over another group.Another important factor is the time frame for interdisciplinary education. For example, have you scheduled time for students to become acquainted and accustomed to one another? Do students have enough time to delve into new perspectives and absorb them? Does their learning take place only in the classroom, or also at home, while they’re processing all new impressions?4. Which disciplines will you be combining and what is the balance between disciplines?&nbsp;The synergy that students experience in interdisciplinary education can affect the achievability of the learning outcomes. Students can have biases towards other disciplines, so it matters which disciplines are combined in interdisciplinary education. You should study possible biases, expectations and feelings of inequality in advance, and take them into consideration when designing your course. Consider facilitating a dialogue between students from different disciplines to create a positive effect on the hierarchies experienced by students, and on the learning outcomes they achieve during the course.&nbsp;Also, consider the balance in the numbers of students of each discipline participating in the education. Think of different scenarios in your educational design. For example, what if the balance in numbers is skewed? If there is an imbalance, learning activities could be designed to be more teacher-intensive than student-intensive, students could be assigned certain disciplinary roles, and/or the group-forming process could be handled more consciously.The four considerations as listed above contribute to creating a learning environment in which interdisciplinary collaboration and integration can flourish. But to truly foster an inspiring, safe and accessible interdisciplinary learning climate, we need to focus on constructive alignment of learning outcomes, learning activities, assessment and the learning environment.Jessica Oudenampsen is assistant professor of liberal arts and sciences at Utrecht University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How to create a safe, inspiring interdisciplinary classroom

With interdisciplinary teaching, we need to look at ‘how’ as well as ‘what’. Focus on these four elements of course design to create a space where integration and interdisciplinarity can flourish

Four things to consider to create a safe and inspiring interdisciplinary learning environment 

Interdisciplinarity has an ambitious goal: tackling real-world, complex problems. This is why higher education institutions are incorporating it into their strategic thinking, and why more students keenly aware of the uncertainty of their future are coming to university demanding a different kind of education. But can you really be that ambitious in a 10-week module?In this article, I will address some challenges and practical ways to overcome them based on my experience of teaching a core module that introduces students to interdisciplinarity on the University of Birmingham’s liberal arts and natural sciences programme.Define and frame interdisciplinarityIf you don’t define interdisciplinarity at the start of a module, it can become a buzzword that’s confused with multidisciplinarity, which also draws on multiple disciplines but doesn’t involve integration. You must also explain why interdisciplinarity is necessary, as integration is always a means to an end, so make its purpose to your module clear. In our module, the aim is to gain an interdisciplinary understanding of a topic: students must integrate claims from multiple disciplines to produce a new, interdisciplinary claim.Structure the processInterdisciplinarity demands that students combine different perspectives, handle conflicting methodologies and create new knowledge. Not surprisingly, the experience of interdisciplinary research is often marked by ambiguity, leading to anxiety and affecting students’ satisfaction.Providing students with a research process can give them a roadmap. In our module, we use Allen Repko and Rick Szostak’s Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory, which is the most popular and student-friendly model.Resources featuring advice on how to implement interdisciplinarity in higher educationSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingHow can we assess interdisciplinarity?Using a research process has another advantage. Every example of interdisciplinarity brings together a unique set of variables, disciplines, topics, questions and integrations. When students practise it in a module, they may wonder how much is transferable to another example with different combinations of disciplines, topics and questions. Learning a research process will support them in the future.Manage the workloadInterdisciplinarians don’t need to be experts, but they can’t be tourists in the disciplines they’re using either. Students need an adequate understanding of them to integrate claims from them properly. This adds a heavy workload on top of learning about the module’s subject, such as a real-world problem and dealing with the unique demands of integration.We use group work to address this issue. We divide students into groups of four or five and ask each group member to apply a different discipline. Where possible, we ensure that no two group members use the same discipline; if they do, they must apply different aspects of it to provide varied perspectives. Their task is to gain a good understanding of their disciplinary approach and teach it to the rest of their group.This student-centred approach has three additional benefits. First, each group gets to choose the topic they want to study for the duration of the module. Second, it makes group members more accountable to each other, reducing the chances of “free riding”. Third, since a student can’t control the disciplines their fellow group members choose, it motivates them to be more open-minded, experiencing the freedom that interdisciplinarity offers.Practise integrationThis is the biggest challenge. “How much integration is enough?” is a common question. It doesn’t help that much of the research process is multidisciplinary. This is why it’s essential to define the purpose of integration at the start of a module. If the aim is to create new knowledge, does the integration of claims advance the argument?To make matters more difficult, although integration can occur at any time, it takes centre stage in the process only after a thorough study of the topic and the disciplinary approaches being applied to it. In other words, towards the end of term, when students are juggling assignments from other modules – at the point when worried minds might become more strategic, we’re asking them to be creative and original.Because every integration is unique, teaching it poses challenges. This is why it’s so important to get the earlier steps in the process right. Presenting examples, including analysing previous student works, can help with this. We run a stand-alone lecture near the end of the module to discuss integration and introduce good and bad examples. Books like the Repko and Szostak texts also contain useful examples and advice.&nbsp;Multidisciplinarity is less demanding than interdisciplinarity and also helps to provide a holistic understanding of a topic. However, each discipline, on its own, cannot address wicked or messy problems. Interdisciplinarity is harder to teach, but it can be a richly rewarding and exciting experience. Although we can only achieve so much in 10 weeks, a successful interdisciplinary module can empower students and train them to think like interdisciplinarians.Simon Scott is a liberal arts and natural sciences associate professor at the University of Birmingham.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?

Interdisciplinarity is an ambitious and rewarding research process, but how realistic can we be in a 10-week module? Here is how to frame the task, structure the process and balance workloads

When I mark philosophy essays, for example, about Plato’s epistemology in The Republic, I know what to expect from an essay before I begin reading it. In contrast, on the student-centred, interdisciplinary modules that my department runs, I have no idea what to expect. Every student writes about something different, applying disciplines outside of my expertise, with the aim of creating new knowledge. Marking these essays is a very reactive experience, and it takes longer. As daunting as this is for me, the challenges are far greater for students.However, a well-designed assessment strategy can benefit both staff and students, leading to a richly rewarding and enjoyable experience. In this resource, I outline four principles to help you develop a strategy to effectively assess interdisciplinary work.Assess the processInterdisciplinarity is a process, and you must assess this as well as the outcome. This approach avoids rewarding students who stumble upon a good example of integration without fully engaging with the process, and penalising students who engage well with the process but are unsuccessful in their integration.To ensure successful integration, one must avoid rushing through the early stages. Assessing the early stages of the process is an effective way to slow students down and motivate them to engage with it. This can involve critically evaluating the disciplinary approaches used, reflecting on the interdisciplinary framing of a topic and identifying commonalities and differences between knowledge claims.Resources featuring advice on how to implement interdisciplinarity in higher educationWhat a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teachingSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingGet the question rightThe most common reason for practising interdisciplinarity is to tackle complex topics and questions. These “wicked” or “messy” issues require going beyond a single discipline. Simply framing a topic from multiple disciplines is not enough, as each can only ask and answer a question from its own perspective. Some kind of integration is needed.Getting the question right is crucial, and dedicating class time to this allows students to practise developing effective interdisciplinary questions. Provide them with example questions and ask whether they invite a disciplinary, multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary response, and how we might improve them. For example:How has social media influenced the way we form and maintain social connections?&nbsp;What influence do newspapers have on elections?How do climate change-induced migration patterns influence the cultural adaptations of affected communities?Ensure students actively practise integrationThe most common mistake students make when attempting integration is to make a multidisciplinary argument. It’s important to ensure that at least one assessment requires them to practise integration.This should be reflected in the marking rubric. Having assessment categories specifically devoted to interdisciplinarity is helpful. For instance, one category – “interdisciplinary framing” – might assess whether the chosen disciplinary approaches are justified, and whether the student is aware of their strengths and limitations, as well as whether the question invites an interdisciplinary response. It might also assess why interdisciplinarity is needed.Another category could focus on integration itself. If the aim is to create new knowledge, does this new knowledge build on and evolve from preceding disciplinary claims? Or, for example, is the integration a mechanical combination of disciplinary claims that fail to cohere?&nbsp;Aspects of interdisciplinarity should also be incorporated into all marking categories. For example, most essay-writing rubrics address communication. Good signposting and clear explanations of terms are essential in all good academic writing, but it helps to emphasise that interdisciplinarians must write for multiple audiences and not assume expertise in each one.Evaluate new knowledge within a frameworkOne of the biggest challenges with interdisciplinary assessments is deciding how to evaluate the quality of new knowledge. On what grounds can we judge a new, interdisciplinary claim as “good”, rather than “poor” or “very good”?There are two key considerations here: first, the purpose of interdisciplinarity in the student’s work. For example, if integration is necessary to create new knowledge, does the new claim advance the argument? In practical terms, each discipline asks a different question and focuses on different phenomena, developing the argument in different directions. Successful integration unites these different strands into a single, coherent argument.Second, does the new claim contain traces of the disciplinary approaches used, but does not belong to either discipline? I encourage students to compare their disciplinary and interdisciplinary claims side by side. This helps determine how distinct the new claim is, revealing, for example, whether they really needed to go outside a discipline to make this new claim.Interdisciplinarity requires a rich set of skills. A well-designed assessment strategy can tap into these, motivating students to become original thinkers. This not only improves assessment practices but also fosters adaptability and critical thinking abilities essential for tackling the complex problems of our time.Simon Scott is a liberal arts and natural sciences associate professor at the University of Birmingham.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

How can we assess interdisciplinarity?

Effectively assessing interdisciplinarity involves encouraging students to ask the right questions and critically evaluating the quality of the knowledge created, explains Simon Scott

As healthcare systems evolve to meet ever more complex challenges, the key to success lies not just in individual expertise but in collaboration. Failures in multidisciplinary teamwork have often led to compromised patient care and avoidable errors, leading to diminished trust in healthcare systems.&nbsp;For example, a lack of communication between healthcare teams in respiratory care once jeopardised the continuity of patient management. However, when a well-coordinated team of physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists followed structured protocols, patient outcomes vastly improved, demonstrating the life-saving potential of effective&nbsp;collaboration.Yet,&nbsp;teamwork does not come naturally&nbsp;– it must be taught and practised for it to become effective. In healthcare,&nbsp;interprofessional education (IPE) trains students from various allied health professions to collaborate on patient-centred care. Up to 70 per cent of healthcare professionals felt unprepared for the multidisciplinary demands of the&nbsp;Covid-19 pandemic, according to a 2020 global survey.&nbsp;This highlights the urgent need to make interprofessional practice a core part of healthcare education.Often, IPE in healthcare is introduced too late, during the clinical clerkship phase in the third year. Teaching in silos during the first two years fosters misconceptions about roles and responsibilities, making the late IPE integration less effective.&nbsp;I propose an early introduction of IPE courses in the first year of healthcare colleges. I personally experienced IPE during an interprofessional communication skills course conducted in the early years of medical and nursing programmes, and it was invaluable for developing the skills I needed.&nbsp;Here are my tips to design a foundational IPE course in healthcare education:The design of foundational IPE courseFoundational IPE courses can teach the competencies of effective communication: mutual respect; roles and responsibilities and the common goal of best patient outcome, through case-based activities in classrooms.What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teachingSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingThe challenges of creating a multidisciplinary research centre and how to overcome themStructured courses on effective communication are essential for bridging gaps between healthcare professionals. For example, while doctors may rely on written notes, nurses often depend on verbal handovers for clarity – nuances that must be taught and practised. Through these sessions, I saw trust build organically as we learned to critique one another constructively, without taking things personally. Feedback mechanisms taught us not just how to give feedback but also how to receive it and act upon it – crucial for personal growth.Teaching methods that can be used in this course include:&nbsp;Panel discussionOne of the most transformative experiences I had during my education involved a panel discussion where a nurse, a medical student and a pharmacy trainee sat together, hashing out the best communication strategies for patient care. It was here that I learned a simple truth: communication is not one-size-fits-all.&nbsp;Case-based learning (CBL)CBL is a linchpin of interdisciplinary education, demonstrating its impact when solving a real-world problem alongside peers from different fields. It might seem that first-year students will not be capable of CBL as they are not yet well versed in pathophysiology. Yet, many familiar conditions like a penicillin allergy, Covid, a normal birth or even asthma can serve as cases for teaching IPE in foundational courses.Master adaptive learner framework (MAL)One framework that stood out during these sessions was the master adaptive learner (MAL) framework, a model designed to guide teams through complex scenarios while fostering critical thinking, adaptability and teamwork. The process began with Activation, where each discipline approached the problem from its perspective – medical students focused on treatment, nurses on patient care and physiotherapists on mobility. In the Action phase, we combined these perspectives into a unified plan. Reflection was key, as we analysed our teamwork and identified ways to improve collaboration. Finally, Exploration prepared us to anticipate and address future challenges. This approach isn’t just theoretical – it’s deeply practical.Team-based projectsTeam-based projects enable interdisciplinary teaching by promoting meaningful problem-solving. For example,&nbsp;in a Taiwanese study, nursing and design students collaborated to create patentable healthcare products, requiring continuous communication and adaptability.&nbsp;A similar experience shaped my understanding during the course project where our team of medical students designed a sustainable incubator, collaborating with paediatricians, nurses and respiratory technicians. This project demanded more than knowledge – it required communication, respect and adaptability.Its success lay in key lessons: stepping outside one’s discipline, valuing dialogue, mutual respect, and leveraging diverse perspectives to solve complex challenges and teamwork.&nbsp;Integrating interdisciplinary education into existing programmes may seem challenging, but a few actionable steps can simplify the process:Role models:&nbsp;Healthcare educators should themselves collaborate authentically to set an example for students. Nothing is more impactful than embodying the core competencies of interprofessional practice through real-life application.Faculty training:&nbsp;Workshops to train faculty on core competencies of interprofessional practice (eg,&nbsp;IPEC Core Competencies) and on how to teach those competencies with CBL, and simulation activities.Leverage technology:&nbsp;Tools like simulation software and AI-driven virtual cases can enhance interdisciplinary scenarios.Continuous evaluation:&nbsp;Regular feedback from all stakeholders ensures programmes remain relevant and effective.The future of healthcare demands more than just expertise. It requires the ability of all healthcare professionals to collaborate, innovate and adapt in ways that transform patient care. The question isn’t whether we should embrace interdisciplinary teaching, it’s how quickly we can&nbsp;make it the foundation of healthcare education, because the future is already knocking at our door.Hajer N. Sheikh is a lecturer and Umamah Rehman is a second-year medical student at Dubai Medical College for Girls.If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Tips for designing interprofessional education courses 

Adapting to and collaborating with other professionals is essential in medicine. Here’s how to nurture an interdisciplinary mindset from the very start

Tips for designing interprofessional education courses in healthcare

A short film depicting a dystopia without the European Union, a kebab that solves the “empty chair” crisis of 1960s European integration or lemon-based batteries that provide Germany with electricity...these are a few of the creative outputs that can result when non-technical courses are included in engineering curricula and students are introduced to cutting-edge educational approaches.As the pressures on European decision processes grow, young engineers in Europe need interdisciplinary and other interconnected skills to communicate the science clearly, both to inform the public and to protect shared resources such as the environment. Our innovation of the past four terms has been to join forces to carry out cross-course module projects. These modules have merged their end-of-term deliverables into single short videos on EU-related topics.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingUsing documentary film to communicate your social researchEquipping university students to be leaders in addressing climate changeOur course modules – Introduction to Audio Visual Analysis and Production (which we will call Group A) and Science, Technology and Society in the European Union (Group B) – blur borders of content and method transfer.&nbsp;Such an approach is in the DNA of Université de Technologie de Compiègne, a French engineering school. Our goals are to enable future engineers (from Group B) to contribute to discussions in the EU, and to understand its history, purpose and vision, and current challenges, threats and opportunities. Group A follows a more methodology-oriented course, which aims to create audiovisual media productions under ethical, legal, technical and content constraints, based on theoretical reflections and document analysis.The approach: picking tools from a growing pedagogical toolboxOur idea for the cross-course approach has been simple: students, one from each group, pair up to produce a video. The student from Group A defines the scenario and the audiovisual approach, while the student from Group B decides the topic and the overall content, and chooses the reference material. The deliverables are a video in two official EU languages, plus a short document that summarises references, facts, sources and, if necessary, the topic’s bigger picture.This simple project gave students opportunities to use many pedagogical tools, listed below in alphabetical order:Active learning or problem-based learning&nbsp;is an approach whereby teachers do not impart learning content to their students in theory. Instead, learners themselves become active in order to acquire the knowledge. Here, each team works together to find reliable information, check facts and identify ways of presenting.Blended learning combines traditional classroom scenarios with virtual or e-learning. In our case, the teams of students prepared the virtual teaching materials (videos), which are then made available to future generations via an e-learning platform.Flipped learning or inverted classroom is an approach where the two phases of knowledge transfer and practical practice through tasks are reversed. Team by team, one student explains their topic to their partner (that is, video-making to future EU experts and EU to future cineastes). Second, the availability of a growing set of educational audiovisual material prepared by teams from previous terms blurs the boundaries between knowledge transfer and practical practice. Our field trip to Brussels, the capital of European affairs, with groups A and B, completes this practice, providing interviewing and filming opportunities and first-hand insights.Interdisciplinary learning combines the knowledge and methodologies of different disciplines. Our case brings together methodology, artistic audiovisual production, general education (multilingualism, critical thinking, writing, collaboration, communication and real-world application) and civic political educational resources.Microlearning favours short modules of generally three to five minutes. Training is available online to learners at any time, and focuses on a single idea or concept. The production of three- to five-minute videos allows for a short window of attention.Virtual learning is a pedagogical model based on the use of shared resources. Our created resources are made available on a university-wide platform.The benefits of using multiple pedagogical toolsIt is difficult to rigorously evaluate the benefits of our approach to blending educational tools. The knowledge level of the groups seems to increase from semester to semester, but this could also be as a result of other improvements. However, it is clear that each group is engaging deeper with the course topics. The attribution of roles as junior experts seems to be a step towards their mastery of the topics in both courses at once, and thus we see this as a resource-efficient approach.For colleagues who would like to emulate our approach, we have two tips.&nbsp;First, go ahead. The simple act of involving a colleague from another discipline will help shape your course. Second, provide clear communication, with a strong team of lecturers speaking in a united voice (one challenge might be that students want to play their professors off against each other).Second, we gave our students the tools, and they finished the job. Each semester, about 60 future engineers get hands-on contact with the seventh art. This seems crucial, as the (mis)use of audiovisual tools by lobbyists and other unscientific forces takes up a growing part of the public space.We are keen to repeat the outcomes of the project each term. Further to the set listed above, our teams have provided the most precious tool: their creativity.Martin Morgeneyer is the Jean Monnet professor and chair of Empowering Europe, Environment, Engineering at&nbsp;Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC).&nbsp;Esteban Zúñiga Domínguez&nbsp;is a composer, film director&nbsp;and lecturer at UTC.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Why engineers need interdisciplinary learning

Young engineers need interdisciplinary skills more than ever to communicate science clearly, both to inform the public and to protect shared resources such as the environment. Here are lessons from a cross-course project

Active, flipped, micro, virtual learning: a toolbox for interdisciplinary teaching

Interdisciplinary teaching requires students to learn a subject from multiple perspectives, encourages them to think critically, and be mindful of their own biases and respectful of ethical quandaries. It offers a more complete understanding of a given issue.&nbsp;However, I believe we should go one step further and teach through a transdisciplinary lens. Transdisciplinary teaching integrates disciplines, ensuring that learning happens in the context of real-world problems. This type of teaching should also include non-academic stakeholders – societal partners. In transdisciplinary teaching, diverse perspectives provide a broader, more nuanced understanding of a subject.Why take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach?&nbsp;In the US, higher education’s traditional model of broad study in a range of disciplines has shifted towards in-depth study within a special area of interest. Specialisation has allowed researchers to delve more deeply into their areas of expertise – and helped produce many of our greatest achievements. But siloed disciplinary fields have also separated academic courses of study, and we now realise that the silo model isn’t well calibrated for today’s challenges. Complex challenges such as climate change, public health crises and technological ethics mandate insights from multiple disciplines and a a variety of perspectives.And when higher education professionals build out the path to graduation in fields such as civil engineering, health administration or architectural design, our goal is to create future leaders and problem-solvers who are ready to synthesise knowledge and offer a holistic understanding of the most important issues we face.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingInterdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our partsFor truly practical learning, embrace an interdisciplinary approachAn inter- and transdisciplinary approach to education allows students to develop advanced critical thinking and problem-solving abilities. They learn to identify connections and patterns that might be overlooked in a single-discipline approach. And we know that employers seek graduates who can collaborate across fields, adapt to dynamic roles and contribute to innovative solutions, as well as the empathy and communication skills that such tasks require. The collaborative projects that we use in transdisciplinary teaching help students learn to value other people’s perspectives. Relatedly, gleaning intersecting ideas from multiple disciplines often sparks creativity and innovation in students, meaning they are better positioned to make breakthroughs in science, technology and society.How to implement an inter- and transdisciplinary approachImplementing inter- and transdisciplinary teaching in universities requires strategic planning and leadership commitment. Leadership plays a pivotal role in creating an environment where these methods can thrive.&nbsp;Here’s how universities can implement such an approach:Leadership commitment and vision Leaders set the tone and direction for institutional priorities. When university leaders actively endorse inter- and transdisciplinary teaching, it becomes a core element of the institution’s identity rather than a niche practice. This should be clearly articulated in strategic plans and other leadership communications.Structural and policy support Structural barriers – such as rigid departmental silos – can dampen collaboration among departments and units. One way around this is to create interdisciplinary centres or programmes. At Virginia Tech, we have the&nbsp;Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, through which faculty can find funding to explore innovative practices and connect to pedagogical support and other faculty who are interested in this space. Another technique is to support pilot implementations of transdisciplinary courses. As an illustration, in our Honors College, the&nbsp;SuperStudio brings students and external stakeholders together to look at complex problems.Transdisciplinary curricula Techniques here include having faculty design inter- and transdisciplinary courses as part of general education requirements; requiring students to complete interdisciplinary projects; engaging in team teaching – pairing faculty from different disciplines to co-teach classes. For example, in a class addressing urban sustainability, instructors from engineering, sociology, environmental science and public policy might participate in teaching, allowing students to tackle design solutions that are technically feasible, socially inclusive and environmentally sound. Another technique is for faculty to use case studies in class that present complex scenarios with technical, ethical, economic and social aspects, encouraging students to analyse the problem from different angles and from the perspective of varied stakeholders.Teaching through an inter- and transdisciplinary lens can encourage students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, adaptability, empathy and a holistic understanding of complex issues. These are increasingly key in an interconnected professional landscape – and more and more sought after by employers.By adapting the techniques outlined here and fully committing to inter- and transdisciplinary education, university leaders can transform institutions into hubs of innovation and collaboration, better preparing students for the work, life and service challenges of the 21st century.Catherine Amelink is associate vice-provost in the Office of the Executive Vice-Provost and director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Virginia Tech. She facilitates the university-wide Destination Area initiative to advance transdisciplinary research and learning and is co-editor of&nbsp;Global Insights into Transdisciplinary Higher Education Initiatives (Virginia Tech Publishing, 2025).If you’d like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Why is it important to integrate knowledge and methodologies across disciplines? Catherine Amelink has recommendations to encourage the student engagement needed to address complex, weighty problems

What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teaching

A huge variety of academic disciplines are reliant on creativity. In fact, we believe that it should be equal to literacy in terms of supporting students’ preparation for study. All students should have the opportunity to try to ignite and reignite creative abilities that may have been denied or suppressed, and so address Ken Robinson’s view that we are “educating people out of their creative capacities”.Non-assessed creative play, in which students are enlightened and challenged, can be a foundation for success at university. They learn to see the physical representation of art, objects and design differently; they experiment and explore, have fun and share their experiences.&nbsp;De Montfort University’s Drawing Centre facilitates an inclusive, transformative studio environment where students can develop their individual creativity through timetabled sessions in which activity is aligned with the curriculum, or when they are brave enough to come into the centre independently. It nurtures culture with passion, generosity, determination and inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches.Read more: creativity in higher educationPlay on: how to build community on campus through musicHow learning through play pedagogy can develop 21st century business leadersStudio activities are designed to break down barriers to visualisation. For example, model making and Lego Serious Play encourage students to explore environment and set design, to consider practically how physical spaces can be used, and to improve understanding of perspective and composition in film-making. Students engaged in curriculum requiring portrayal of the physical human form (for example, contour fashion, animation or game art) participate in “blind” contour drawing, based on ideas developed from&nbsp;the&nbsp;work of Betty Edwards, to develop hand-eye coordination and left-right brain stimulation.Getting students to develop creative methodologies&nbsp;Our approach encourages students to embrace an individualised creative journey, drawing inspiration and encouragement from other students and practitioners in related academic fields. Studio-based values of bravery, resilience, learning community, togetherness, positivity and mindset encourage learners to try new things. Students develop resilience, to try, adapt and rework, and try again. Students find a sense of belonging through “togetherness”, being physically in the same space and also through non-judgemental approaches to learning and development. We encourage self-reflection on the positives and identifying silence in the negatives.Creative and playful learning&nbsp;experiences, such as using Lego to develop composition ideas, photography to understand perspective, scale and proportion, field trips and mark-making drawing exercises to develop confidence with materials, promote engagement through authentic learning opportunities. Playful learning facilitates freedom to engage, experiment and explore, while embracing a level of uncertainty in the process and outcome. This allows students to develop lifelong learning skills and tools supporting ideation and iteration in design that can be adapted for use in response to taught and assessed curriculum content.While many universities have extracurricular support for academic writing, mathematics and research skill development, few have the same amount of support for visual learners. The Drawing Centre is exploring how we can support all elements of visual acuity for our learners, enabling them to achieve their best in the curriculum and beyond. This studio environment offers one-to-one, personalised support,&nbsp;factors recognised&nbsp;as key to improving confidence from the early stages of their higher education experience.The value of non-assessed creative play in the transition to universityMany students are starting higher education with little or no confidence in visual expression (doing), visual literacy (working with and finding images) and visualisation (prospective visual thinking), according to early research from our pre-entry self-evaluations. Understanding this starting point is critical to considering how to address the development of creative learning.Preparatory activities as part of the transition into higher education may include self-assessment exercises that invite students to reflect on their skillsets, confidence levels and perceived level of study skills. While study skill preparations often include academic writing, reading and information management, De Montfort also encourages student reflection on visual literacy to help them to develop creative literacies.While others have&nbsp;written on&nbsp;play and creativity in assessment, key to our approach is the concept of non-assessed creative play. We recognise that a student’s journey of creative development is an individualised experience, one that benefits from the opportunity to create in response to a range of stimuli and input, with non-judgemental support to explore different media, developing into “final” (not all work is “finished”) outcomes that represent that growth.The Drawing Centre is an experiential learning environment, culture and community, using learning approaches adapted for the individual, to help students develop creative enquiry to inform critical thinking. Its curriculum encourages confidence in visual enquiry using problem-based learning related to lifelong learning skills that are, in turn, beneficial to mental health and well-being, and contribute to broader creativity in society.For those wishing to explore the benefits of students’ confidence and creative thinking through creative play, we would encourage introducing non-assessed creative exercises, beyond (where resources allow) or within the curriculum. When introducing this in the curriculum, we recommend formative rather than summative approaches, and non-judgemental activities that emphasise individual learning journeys.Further supporting confidence is the concept of belonging. Exploring how&nbsp;communities can be developed to empower students to explore creative approaches alongside and with others, sharing reflections and feedback between peers, further enhances the skill set.The approach aims to inspire all who visit the Drawing Centre, reducing the decline in students’ abilities to think divergently in creative education, while non-assessed creative play supports the development of confidence and criticality in higher education.Chris Wright is a senior lecturer and Drawing Centre lead; Zoë Allman is associate dean (academic) in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media, both at De Montfort University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Can creative play help students develop critical thinking?

Supporting and enhancing students’ drawing skills improves not only their visual communication but also their mental health and well-being. Chris Wright and Zoë Allman offer low-stakes ways to use creativity to build community

Can non-assessed creative play help students develop confidence and critical thinking?

Podcast: interview with social artist Helen Storey

The UNHCR’s first designer-in-residence Helen Storey talks about why she has donated her creative archive to the University of the Arts London, and how the arts can help people connect with issues such as climate change and the refugee crisis  

THE podcast: social artist Helen Storey on working on the boundary of fashion and science 

To make education more practical and foster collaboration, the Malaysian higher education sector is focusing more on interdisciplinarity. One innovative approach adopted recently is integrated project-based assignment learning (IPAL), which aims to revolutionise students’ learning experiences and equip them with the skills they need post-graduation.Promote a holistic approachIPAL merges fields of study into a single assignment, allowing students to explore the interconnectedness between disciplines effectively and practically. At Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP), IPAL blends hydrocarbon and petrochemical studies with molecular spectroscopy to provide students with an understanding of each subject and how they complement one another within contexts. Through this approach to education, students are prepared to tackle real-world challenges by deploying their interdisciplinary knowledge and hands-on skills effectively.&nbsp;Collaborative learning and real-world modellingIPAL’s focus on practical applications is a significant advantage. Assignments are designed around challenges students may face in professional contexts, motivating them to apply their academic knowledge to real-world situations.&nbsp;For example, students can select a popular molecule, such as the Ziegler-Natta or Grubbs catalyst, and investigate its applications in hydrocarbon synthesis and petrochemical operations. Their tasks involve determining starting materials, optimal synthesis parameters and potential applications in industries like pharmaceuticals and materials science. The molecular spectroscopy component requires students to leverage various spectroscopic techniques for structural characterisations. The assignment culminates in a 15-minute presentation and accounts for 15 per cent of the overall grade.‘If you can empower others to build connections, you can help build a thriving collaborative ecosystem’Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingThe challenges of creating a multidisciplinary research centre and how to overcome themIn the 21st-century workforce, IPAL emphasises team-based learning. Students work in groups of four to five, fostering a cohesive working environment and exposing them to diverse perspectives. This structure mirrors professional settings, where effective collaboration and communication are essential. Group projects facilitate ideas exchange, enabling students to learn from each other and develop vital social skills, preparing them to succeed in any professional environment.Evaluation and feedback: tracking progressThe IPAL project is part of a nine-week blended learning activity that runs throughout the semester, with weekly discussions to track progress. It also keeps students on target and provides a continuous feedback loop.&nbsp;Assessment is based on students’ ability to integrate and apply knowledge across multiple courses, with an emphasis on research, communication skills, teamwork and analytical thinking. These abilities are vital not just for academic learning but also for future application in professional settings.&nbsp;Weekly discussion is a central part of the IPAL model. Lecturers from both courses can offer supervision and make any needed changes. This back-and-forth process is vital to learning – it identifies challenges and addresses them as soon as possible.&nbsp;Students have responded positively to IPAL, citing the engaging nature of the tasks. IPAL has developed a more dynamic learning environment by bridging traditional academic silos and encouraging better knowledge of the topic. As Malaysian institutions work to enhance and expand this initiative, IPAL offers a forward-thinking educational strategy.Room for improvementOne of the challenges we’ve faced in adopting IPAL is the time it takes for academics from different subjects to collaborate.Conducting an evaluation can be also difficult because interdisciplinary work demands fair evaluation, but at the same time, disciplinary rigour must be retained in every subject matter. Overcoming these challenges is critical to fully realising IPAL’s potential to transform education.Zulkifli Merican Aljunid Merican and Lim Jun Wei are senior lecturers in the fundamental and applied science department at Universiti Teknologi Petronas.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

For truly practical learning, embrace interdisciplinarity

Bringing different fields of study together into one practical assignment, focused on a real-world problem, proved to be a game-changer in a sector shifting towards interdisciplinarity. Here's how it worked

For truly practical learning, embrace an interdisciplinary approach

There is a metaphor I use when talking about collaboration.&nbsp;I can buy all the ingredients and follow a recipe to bake a cake. But consider what a master baker can do with the same ingredients. They know how minuscule adjustments in temperature, humidity, spice or sugar can make the best cake you’ve ever had. This is also true in academia. It’s the difference between grouping two $100,000 research efforts into one $200,000 research effort – and grouping them together to create a $1 million project.&nbsp;The difference is making sure researchers have the right information, support and a collaborative environment. With the right approach, a project can be greater than the sum of its parts.&nbsp;Four years ago, the University of Alberta (U of A) embarked on a new journey. The idea was simple in principle: group similar faculties together into colleges. Foster a streamlined approach, take advantage of economies of scale and, perhaps most importantly, create new opportunities for cross-faculty collaboration.I am dean of one of these bodies within the U of A: the College of Social Sciences and Humanities (CSSH). This includes the college’s namesake faculties, along with the Alberta School of Business, Faculty of Education and Faculty of Law.&nbsp;Finding ways to bring pianists, supply-chain experts, lawyers, anthropologists and others to work, teach and research together is no simple task – but it yields results.&nbsp;Here are lessons I’ve learned in my time here.The art of the possibleRight now, at any given school, there are research efforts, new programmes and all manner of other projects that would benefit from teaming up with each other – but don’t know it. As dean, it’s my job to know what’s going on, to talk and, most importantly, to listen.&nbsp;For example, the Fyrefly Institute for Gender and Sexual Diversity, based out of the Faculty of Education, and the eHUB Entrepreneurship Centre, situated in the Alberta School of Business, recently teamed up. At face value, the two groups have pretty different mandates: one focuses on entrepreneurship and the other on supporting members of the LGBTQ+ community. But I knew that the business school was looking to get marginalised groups involved in entrepreneurship and that the Fyrefly Institute wanted to improve the lives of its community members. So, I approached them about connecting.&nbsp;The result was a $3 million (£1.7 million) federal research grant. Together, they will build a national research network focused on collecting data to research the entrepreneurship landscape in the LGBTQ+ community, and developing tools to benefit these entrepreneurs.&nbsp;Five tips for building healthy academic collaborationsCampus webinar: the evolution and innovation of interdisciplinarityCollaboration requires more than not stepping on toesThis kind of connection-building requires filling your Rolodex with names, and a deep understanding of what’s going on. Keep an open mind about what’s possible and develop an eye for creative partnerships.&nbsp;No one can be everywhere at once, so it’s vital that you foster this mindset in others. Everyone will see different opportunities; and if you can empower others to build connections, you can help build a thriving collaborative ecosystem.For example, our deans meet regularly to discuss ideas and share updates. From these regular meetings came our recent production, the SSH Podcast, which showcases research activities that happen across the college.Leverage senior staff and facultyIn some form or another, collaboration is already happening at your institution. It’s not our job to reinvent this wheel. Rather, we should find out what’s been working and what can be improved.&nbsp;Senior scholars are a great source of knowledge here – many know all too well the challenges inherent in cross-faculty collaboration. But first, you must gain their trust. Reassure them that you value their opinions, that you aren’t going to force collaborations on them, that you’re not interested in taking credit for their work – or any of their grant money. And, of course, listen to how you can help them achieve their goals.&nbsp;To build trust, advocate on their behalf.&nbsp;Sometimes in interdisciplinary work, people think they must add a social scientist to “check a box”. But it’s much more than that.&nbsp;An example of this is the funding stream, New Frontiers in Research, geared towards interdisciplinary research. The CSSH advocated for research to be truly interdisciplinary. As a result, several recipients have principal investigators or co-principal investigators from the CSSH, and we are already seeing an impact on research projects.Bring in new points of viewLeverage new&nbsp;scholars who are thinking about novel approaches to collaboration or topics of research and tackling old challenges from new perspectives. Starting them on the path to innovation early in their careers can make a big difference to their work and the university. That said, some of these newer academics may be hesitant when it comes to going outside their disciplines. Or they might not have the time, resources or confidence.&nbsp;As administrators, it’s part of our job to help researchers do the cool stuff, without getting bogged down or intimidated by the forms, calendars and other paperwork.Some of this is, in a very direct sense, finding supports within the university to help them with administrative tasks and making them aware of these tools. The CSSH Office of Research, for instance, offers mentorship and guidance, along with other resources.The CSSH has several communications channels – such as our newsletters – to help get the word out about our professors’ work. Some newer researchers may be unsure of how to promote their efforts, so this is a great way for them to get exposure.&nbsp;That better cakeWhen I think again about that cake metaphor, the example that comes to mind is the Black-led Research Network Initiative. Housed at the CSSH, the organisation is working to build out a long-term strategy to support Black excellence in research. The group has collaborated with colleges across the university, and U of A research with Black principal investigators has received nearly double the funding it did when the organisation was founded in 2022: from $2.1 million to $4.1 million.&nbsp;When smart people work together, amazing things can happen. We are just here to help it along.&nbsp;Marvin Washington is dean of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities in the University of Alberta, Canada.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Build connections to create an interdisciplinary ecosystem

For university administrators, part of the job is to help researchers do the cool stuff, without getting bogged down or intimidated by the forms, calendars and other paperwork, writes Marvin Washington. Here, he offers tips on how to foster interdisciplinary collaboration

‘If you can empower others to build connections, you can help build a thriving collaborative ecosystem’

Back in 2017, we took a long, hard look at ourselves. The distinctive lines of the university had become rather hazy. Instead of focusing on the things we were really good at, we were trying to do too much. We needed to be louder and prouder about our academic strengths and tell a clearer story.Realising this, we regrouped around three colleges and 12 schools in place of five faculties and 26 departments. Admittedly, there were other, less cerebral drivers for our restructure, but agreeing and then inhabiting the best and truest version of our academic selves was a genuinely inspiring process.Knowing our strengthsOne of the University of Westminster’s strengths is research quality, attested by subsequent iterations of the Research Excellence Framework (REF), but we’re not equally fantastic at everything, and nor do we expect to be. As we redrew some of our fuzzy lines, we looked at our research performance indicators and then consulted widely.Interdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our partsDeveloping interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholarsCampus webinar: The evolution and innovation of interdisciplinarityWhat was really striking was the unanimity in the domains of research excellence at Westminster, and they were straightforward to describe: arts, communication and culture; health innovation and well-being; sustainable cities and the urban environment. We take great pride in our diversity as a community and in our commitment to inclusivity, and we agreed that diversity and inclusion should be more than just a Westminster characteristic; it must be core business. And then there were four.How to bring these four areas of research strength to life? Other universities describe research themes or interdisciplinary areas or grand challenges or centres of excellence. For us the key thing is the people – people coming together from across the university and beyond to share their passion, work out solutions together and develop new projects. So, we established our four research communities.The communities do not have a fixed membership but rather bring people together around particular problems or opportunities. Each one has an academic lead, and they receive focused support from our Research and KE Office, as well as internal funding. They exist in a landscape that includes research centres and groups and various other constellations of research activity, but they have a distinctive role to&nbsp;play.Find your communityIf our research centres are hubs, the communities are the spokes, making links between groups of researchers and creating a sort of town square where they can meet. The communities actively pursue multidisciplinary project development, and they are driven by actual current funding opportunities as well as by possible future fundable partnerships. They are an explicit commitment in our 2022-29 research and KE strategy (Making a&nbsp;Difference), so, unlike research themes, we’re not going to keep reinventing them. Indeed, the first bullet point on the first page of the strategy states: “By 2029 we will be at the forefront of research and KE globally”, in the four community spaces.While the distinctive role of the communities may be crystal clear to those of us leading our research endeavour, to others their purpose may be harder to understand. How are they different from research centres or academic schools? Why are they not offering more grants? It is true that they are not equally valuable to everyone, and that is totally fine, but there are those for whom the communities do provide what other bits of the research and KE architecture don’t. The communities are matchmakers.For those, particularly mid-career researchers, whose research endeavour needs a lift, new inspiration, the chance to work with new collaborators or to develop connections beyond the immediate disciplinary home, the communities offer those connections.For those wanting a space for more speculative discussion or who are looking for potential impact partners, or who are looking to raise the profile of their work beyond their home school, the communities offer something special. We have colleagues, including PGRs, who, because of the distinctiveness of their research feel like they don’t naturally belong to any one research centre, but who have found a home in one of the more fluid and diverse communities. And they have brought people together to support research in other ways, via grant-writing workshops, writing retreats, external visits and the like.Our communities have been operating for six years, and there are six years until the end of our current strategy period. All four communities have new leads as of now (either permanent or covering a colleague’s leave), so we are taking the opportunity of a soft relaunch, re-inking some fuzzy edges, but what is clear is that our research communities have served us well, and I’m sure they will continue to do&nbsp;so.Andrew Linn is deputy vice-chancellor for research and knowledge exchange at the University of Westminster.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

How to achieve interdisciplinarity? Focus on the people

Restructuring research domains around four communities allowed academics to find their natural home, writes Andrew Linn. Here’s how to do it

How to achieve interdisciplinary research? Focus on the people

Graduates are increasingly entering a work landscape that demands agility, flexibility and a diverse skill set, and as a result, the value of interdisciplinary education is on the rise. Universities are seeking out ways to expand students’ horizons beyond a discipline-specific degree, creating pathways for students to tackle some of the complex challenges they are likely to face in their future careers.LSE100 is the flagship interdisciplinary course taken by all undergraduate students at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Since 2010, we have been building our students’ capacity to tackle multidimensional problems through research-rich education, giving them the opportunity to explore transformative global challenges in collaboration with their peers and leading academics from across the university.Making group work work: how to enable successful student collaborationSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingBuilding the future: the case for inter-faculty learningThe course has evolved significantly since its creation. We shifted its mode of delivery away from face-to-face lectures and towards a flipped classroom format that prioritises collaborative, interactive seminars to maximise student engagement. Delivering this course to more than 20,000 undergraduates over the past decade has offered some important lessons for designing interdisciplinary teaching – that can develop students’ abilities to embrace complexity, as they work to solve the world’s most pressing issues.Engage students with the breadth of academic researchOne of our core aims at LSE100 is to bring students into the heart of the university tradition of thinking like a social scientist, inviting them to embrace our motto of “understanding the causes of things for the betterment of society”. Key to this goal is showcasing the research of our academics. As part of the course, we invite contributions from researchers across the university, filming short interviews to highlight their findings and impact, which students then watch as part of their preparation for LSE100 seminars. Engaging students with the breadth of academic research is a valuable way to develop skills in synthesising and integrating insights from a wide range of perspectives, which is a core competency of interdisciplinary learning.Signpost the value of different perspectivesIn allocating students to LSE100 seminars, we work with our timetabling colleagues to ensure there is as much diversity of perspective in the classroom as possible. The best conversations happen when students are introduced to an idea or argument, then draw on their disciplinary knowledge to interrogate it. Hearing what a philosopher, lawyer, statistician, anthropologist, and political scientist have to say about the concept of fairness, for example, is hugely valuable for our students.&nbsp;This exposure to new perspectives is accompanied by clear signposting throughout the course when students are engaging with different disciplines. Knowing what a sociological perspective on markets might look like, and how it differs from an economic one, is often an eye-opening experience for first-year undergraduates in thinking beyond the boundaries of their chosen degree.Develop students’ abilities to tackle wicked problemsWe design the course around three complex global challenges, which we argue require an interdisciplinary perspective to meaningfully address. The challenges change over time, and students are given the opportunity to choose the challenge they’re most interested in. Our current challenges (How can we control AI? How can we create a fair society? How can we transform our climate futures?) can all be considered what design theorists Rittel and Webber identified as “wicked problems” – multifaceted, complex problems with no one straightforward solution.&nbsp;Using a wicked problems framing highlights the value of an interdisciplinary approach, expanding students’ toolbox for how to tackle these thorny issues. Students are empowered to consider how they would lead and make change in a world of wicked problems, drawing not only on their disciplinary knowledge but on the theories, methods and concepts offered by fields other than their own.Introducing the tools of interdisciplinary thinkingIn thinking about the design of an interdisciplinary offering, it may be tempting to fall into a trap of multidisciplinarity – showcasing the contributions of many disciplines, but not reaching a truly interdisciplinary space where students can synthesise and integrate these insights. One way to avoid this pitfall is to draw on interdisciplinary frameworks and methods, giving students the tools they need to do interdisciplinary investigation.&nbsp;In LSE100, we develop students’ skills in systems thinking with this goal in mind. Systems thinking, itself an interdisciplinary field, invites students to think not just about individual components of systems but the system itself, as well as its connections. Introducing students to feedback loops, systems mapping and the importance of interconnectedness gives them a way to tackle wicked problems, breaking down challenges into essential parts of a complex system.Embracing complexity through interdisciplinary learning can be a hugely rewarding experience for students, helping prepare them effectively for the world of work. Alongside developing disciplinary expertise and knowledge, we should strive to train our students to think creatively and widely, both when working individually and as part of a team, aiming to create something greater than the sum of its parts.Jillian Terry is associate professor (education) and co-director of LSE100 at the London School of Economics and Political Science.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Embrace complexity with interdisciplinary education 

The real world is complicated. Let’s give our students the tools to take it on with interdisciplinary education

Interdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our parts

Interdisciplinarity was reportedly first conceived in the 1930s when it appeared in a notice about the development of the Social Science Research Council in The Journal of Educational Sociology. Nearly a century on, we are still grappling with how best to design interdisciplinary courses.&nbsp;In our increasingly complex world, students need to be able to work across, between and with multiple disciplines to tackle global challenges, from the climate crisis to increasing inequalities. In response, many of our institutions are developing new degree programmes and building and repurposing to make new learning spaces. But how does this work in practice?UCL’s new campus, UCL East, serves as an interesting case study for developing an institutional approach to launching interdisciplinary courses. After multiple consultations, evaluations, market research and the kind of scrutiny that pertains to any large-scale university investment, nearly 60 new and nearly new degree programmes were born.&nbsp;Focus on academic leadership: UCL East’s ground-up approachOne driver of success has been the conception of the new campus as academically led from the outset. Faculties were invited to submit proposals on research activities, centres and degree programmes, alongside the focus on developing new learning spaces.&nbsp;Use engagement with research as a driver for course innovation&nbsp;Using research as a driver for the creation of new courses works well to engage academics. It can allow their passion for their subject area to shine through, creating dynamism and energy to drive forward programme development. There will always be some academics who are adamant that their idea for a programme is absolutely what is needed right here, right now. It is important, however, to strike a balance between the innovation that comes with interdisciplinary drivers and risk-taking. This can be done by taking a holistic view of new programmes and considering them from multiple perspectives. For example, testing early ideas with existing students, seeking input from potential employers and exploring what competitors are doing.&nbsp;Resources for higher education professionals on InterdisciplinarityCampus webinar: the evolution and innovation of interdisciplinarityPractical strategies for overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary project-based learningMitigate your risks&nbsp;Using research as a driver in the creation of new courses is no easy feat. It involves the kinds of risks associated with what Paul Coyle and Dave Roberts called Type B Courses, a new programme introduced by a university that is innovative and thus has few if any directly competitive courses across the UK sector. In contrast, Type A Courses are programmes introduced by a university that are new to the institution but are widely available across the UK sector.&nbsp;Programmes that fall into the first category often face more challenges in their development journey, so it is useful to understand this at the beginning of the process so the risks can be mitigated to some extent – or at least anticipated. For example, a new interdisciplinary programme operating in a new subject area might benefit from running some pilot modules or taster sessions so that ideas can be tested and socialised before the programme is launched. This can reassure senior management that this programme is a risk worth taking, but also begins to develop interest and gives the opportunity to refine what is planned. Key to decision-making is having embedded and empowered academic leadership throughout the programme. In practice, engaging academics also means enabling different versions of interdisciplinarity to develop and navigate some of the tensions that may surface.Encourage collaborative course designBy using our interdisciplinary research power as a driver for new courses, UCL, like other universities with large-scale research activity, can encompass a diverse integration of ideas and discourse that is inherently interdisciplinary. A key component of this research-based course design is to draw on and encourage existing collaborations between faculties, departments and disciplines.&nbsp;It is also important to work with what your institution already does really well and build on this for course development. Ultimately, students need to take ownership of the interdisciplinary approaches for themselves, but this cannot happen if the connections are too abstract. This is especially true for undergraduate degrees.&nbsp;Holding creative workshops where potential cross-departmental teams can work together on the vision for a programme early on in the developmental process works well, especially when the focus is on the hearts and minds of interdisciplinary students. Often, this kind of gathering results in thematic strands in a course, but also the development of additional modules whose sole intention is to help students connect the ideas across a year of study.Lastly, we’ve also found that it is important that the role of new programme development does not exist in a vacuum and that departments are encouraged to develop modules that many students across a programme might share. This also offers an alternative approach to institutions that are not building new campuses or making major additions to their portfolios. A number of universities now have shared modules in which students from across many disciplines can come together around shared themes such as sustainability, entrepreneurship and community-based learning. Examples are Manchester’s University College for Interdisciplinary Learning and Leeds University's “discovery modules”.This is the first in a two-part series on embedding interdisciplinarity into teaching and learning. Part two of this resource will focus on practical approaches to interdisciplinary course design.Anne Preston is an associate professor in interdisciplinary practice and media communities and Katherine Fletcher is interim director of academic strategy development at University College London.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Developing interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholars

Many universities are developing new interdisciplinary degree programmes to prepare students for working across sectors on complex issues. But how can we engage faculty in this whole-institution approach?

Developing students’ skills in effective collaboration, particularly as a member of a diverse and interdisciplinary team, is a critical area of interest in higher education. Yet anxieties about group work and team projects are rife, with educators’ workloads often weighed down by complex administrative and organisational tasks. This is alongside the worries of equity of contribution and the risk of non-participation, which require careful managing by teachers.At LSE100, the flagship interdisciplinary course taken by all first-year undergraduates at LSE, we facilitate a term-long interdisciplinary group research project for more than 1,800 students each academic year. The project requires students to work in multidisciplinary teams and propose a positive change in relation to a complex global challenge – for instance, how can we regulate the development of AI-driven weapons? How can we incentivise the use of green transport in rural areas? How can we tackle educational inequalities between public and private schools?&nbsp;Interdisciplinarity in teaching: what it is and how to make it workFostering interdisciplinary learning in large-scale doctoral programmesDesigning postgraduate education as a means of sharing and developing academic and professional knowledgeStudents bring their own disciplinary expertise to the project, and are expected to work collaboratively with their team to synthesise insights from across the social sciences to deliver a presentation and digital report. With nearly 400 group projects running simultaneously, we’ve devised a range of strategies to support students through the process of collaboration.Establish a baseline for collaborative successA first step teams take when embarking on the LSE100 group project is develop a team charter. This activity uses simple prompts to invite students into a conversation with their teammates about their expectations for collaboration. The prompts focus on several areas, including:Communication: format, frequency, expectation of response time&nbsp;Team meetings: hybridity, agenda-setting, note-taking&nbsp;Roles and responsibilities: interests, expertise, time framesAll of these encourage students to have a frank and honest dialogue with their team members from the outset of the project.&nbsp;In addition to making space for this valuable conversation, a team charter also helps to establish a written record for the group to refer back to. If a group member misses a deadline, acts inappropriately in a meeting or fails to fulfil their responsibilities to their team, both students and teachers can draw on the team charter as an accountability mechanism, using it as a starting point for further conversation and resetting of expectations.Building confidence in working as a teamAll too often, group projects rely solely on students’ existing knowledge or prior experiences of collaboration when considering how students will work together. In LSE100, we have worked to embed a range of team-working skills into students’ preparation for each group project seminar. This is especially important for our first-year undergraduates, many of whom have never been part of a group project before arriving at university.&nbsp;During the first half of the project, students learn about techniques for delegating roles in a team, how to build consensus and methods for effective team communication. The second half of the project focuses more concretely on project delivery, developing students’ skills in project management and offering frameworks for conflict resolution in difficult group situations. By foregrounding these elements in our course materials, students are better equipped to collaborate with each other. Instead of relying on their instincts, they can use the evidence-based approaches they’ve encountered in preparing for their seminars.A scaffolded approach to project deliveryWhile there is certainly value in group projects that take place entirely outside the classroom, the LSE100 project is designed to maximise students’ engagement with the project during their scheduled seminar time. In group project seminars, students sit with their team members and work through a structured set of tasks or activities which have key project deliverables attached to them.&nbsp;For instance, the first seminar asks groups to identify the specific focus of their project through activities that support them in narrowing down their topic and identifying relevant information. Further seminars invite groups to choose a target audience for their project, identify key stakeholders, outline their proposal and pinpoint possible obstacles.&nbsp;With each seminar, teams are able to draft a section of their project. This promotes a step-by-step approach and helps groups avoid feeling overwhelmed when the project deadline nears. Scaffolding groups’ work in this way also lets teachers take on an important supervisory role, checking in with teams about their progress and identifying any sticking points where individual students or groups may be struggling.Designing structured seminars for group project work also enables the inclusion of meaningful peer feedback opportunities. During LSE100 seminars, groups regularly meet each other to hear about their projects, act as “critical friends” and test out new ideas with their peers before finalising them for submission. Giving groups the opportunity to learn about each other’s work-in-progress, rather than solely the final product, incentivises collaboration and sharing of perspectives which can be hugely valuable for student teams.While team working can often raise new and unexpected challenges for both students and educators, our approaches have helped ensure that LSE100 students are able to make meaningful progress and work effectively as part of a diverse and interdisciplinary team. Feedback from students indicates that the group project is often their favourite part of their LSE100 experience, helping them develop essential skills for their future studies and beyond.Jillian Terry is associate professor (education) and co-director of LSE100 at the London School of Economics and Political Science.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Making group work work

How can we help students collaborate without weighing down staff with extra admin? First-year interdisciplinary research projects could be the answer

Making group work work: how to enable successful student collaboration

Interdisciplinary teams face specific challenges, not least of which is the difficulty of establishing a shared vision among sometimes fundamentally different academic disciplines that all speak their own language. For example, talking about an agent&nbsp;means one thing to a computer modeller and something different to a software engineer.Compromising on disciplinary desirables to elevate the overall quality of the synthesis represents another challenge. This requires researchers to acknowledge difficult positionalities and readiness to retreat from ownership of activities so structural inequalities can be addressed.Then there’s who is credited for what when it comes to outputs and managing scholarly peer review of interdisciplinary research for publication or funding. Evaluation becomes difficult when multiple disciplinary standards and criteria need to be reconciled. Interdisciplinary research, even when delivered successfully, often makes slow progress, and longer publication and citation times can mean depressed productivity (with implications for career progression), which can leave a sense of dissatisfaction among interdisciplinary researchers.Interdisciplinary ‘prenups’ to overcome barriers in interdisciplinary research&nbsp;A bold approach to the challenges of interdisciplinary research could be interdisciplinary “prenups”, as proposed in a recent article in EMBO Reports. An interdisciplinary team of researchers, including myself, offer practical guidelines to developing an interdisciplinary ecosystem, including targeting decision-making at the individual, team, organisation, funder and publisher levels.&nbsp;Read more advice and guidance on interdisciplinarityWhat are the key questions that help universities measure societal impact?All together now: how to write an interdisciplinary research proposalIn the article, the authors propose an agreement for interdisciplinary work as a bottom-up approach to mitigate some of the challenges of interdisciplinary research. This prenup would help to establish shared values, visions, objectives, risk appetites, communications protocols, publication strategies, intellectual property, academic impact, risks and opportunities. Creating a prenup would entail structured conversations among team members during the planning phase of the collaboration or project to identify reciprocal challenges and the mutual benefits to each discipline. Interdisciplinary teams can formalise the agreed outcomes of these discussions as foundational documents to govern decision-making, establish shared objectives and even resolve disputes. This will ensure researchers value each other and, especially, their contributions, rather than seeing interdisciplinary research as a set of transactions or a tick-box exercise.Another issue this will overcome concerns the order of authors on scientific articles, which reflects the contribution of each author to the project. While the order varies across disciplines and cultures, typically the first and last position carry the most weight, and order is a key measure of the authors’ contributions, which eventually influences significant decisions such as promotions, securing tenure or appropriation of research grants.&nbsp;Given that, in interdisciplinary teams, the contributions of individual members do not stack against each other in sharp relief (unlike in single-discipline teams, where this is relatively easy to determine), disagreements around authorships represent a recurring motif in interdisciplinary research. Prenups can develop and outline an equitable strategy that alternates first and last authorships in a way that those with substantial contributions get due credit. For example, a research project that integrated clinical, engineering, software and biomedical approaches and yielded a virtual asthma patient credited multiple authors as “first authors”, “senior authors” and “corresponding authors” to fairly represent the contributions of the team members.The prenup strategy was adopted by EVAL-FARMS: a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)-funded interdisciplinary project that integrated methods from mathematics, engineering, microbial sciences, anthropology and geography to address antimicrobial resistance in agriculture. The prenup, especially, ensured that publications were handled more equitably across the team.Enhancing interdisciplinary researchIt is clear to academics, funders and policymakers that the biggest issues our world faces will not be solved by individual disciplines, but by collaborations across them. This requires a fundamental rethink at the multiple stakeholder levels, from academics, research institutes, funders and publishers of how interdisciplinary research is funded, conducted, published and measured, including the assessment of interdisciplinary researchers’ contributions.&nbsp;The proposal to introduce prenups is just one of the solutions proposed in the paper that outlines seven recommendations for researchers, institutions, publishers and funders to enhance interdisciplinary research and output. As the authors state: “The underlying truth is that interdisciplinary collaborations require additional time, a collective willingness to revisit and reflect, patience in stepping into the unfamiliar and even sacrifices for the greater good.” Despite these challenges and the interdisciplinary path being non-linear, the opportunities are plentiful and always rewarding.Himanshu Kaul is a Royal Academy of Engineering research fellow at the University of Leicester.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

A bottom-up approach could establish shared values, objectives, risk appetites and publication strategies as ways to mitigate challenges that hinder effective progress of interdisciplinary teams

Can academic prenups help overcome barriers to interdisciplinary research?

The academic world is often sorted into separate boxes, but the real-word problems we’re facing can’t be neatly filed away. How can we make interdisciplinarity work practically in both teaching and research? Our discussion includes advice on how to implement interdisciplinarity in teaching and research, what students get out of interdisciplinary work, the distinctions between multi- and transdisciplinary work and how they differ from interdisciplinarity, and how universities can promote interdisciplinary learning from the word go.Our panellists are:Louise Kuchel, deputy associate dean at the Faculty of Science, University of QueenslandRohan Walker, director of advanced training systems at the University of Newcastle, AustraliaKyle Jenkins, dean of creative arts at the University of Southern Queensland.All of our speakers are from Campus+ partner institutions. Campus+ is a unique opportunity to become a contributing partner to the resources, tools and advice published on Campus.Don’t forget to book your ticket to Campus Live ANZ, taking place on 26 and 27 September in Newcastle, Australia.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Campus webinar: the evolution of interdisciplinarity

Join three experts from Campus+ partner institutions in Australia as they discuss interdisciplinarity, how to implement it in teaching and research and why it’s important for the future


Campus webinar: The evolution and innovation of interdisciplinarity

Academic research often occurs in silos, but for some researchers, interdisciplinary collaboration is fundamental to satisfying their intellectual curiosity. Caitlin Maikawa is one of them. A Senior Schmidt Science Fellow and now&nbsp;an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, Maikawa leads her own lab out of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering. The Maikawa Lab develops cutting-edge technologies with a number of clinical applications and comprises scientists from biology, material science, chemistry and medicine, all working as a close-knit team.“My engineering education emphasised the importance of bringing in people with different expertise and different stakeholders. It emphasised teamwork, and I think that made a lot of sense,” she says. “I grew up playing sports, specifically ice hockey, and through playing team sports I learnt the value of working together and everyone having a different role on the team.”Maikawa’s research career took off when she was a PhD student working on the development of dynamic polymer-based insulin formulations that could be deployed in an autonomous system for treating diabetes. These insulin formulations need to respond quickly to changes in glucose levels to be effective. “Having insulins with faster kinetics is important,” Maikawa says. “Diabetes treatment is heading towards autonomous artificial pancreas devices where you have an insulin-infusion pump paired with a glucose sensor. Using an algorithm, the information gathered from the glucose sensor can inform autonomous insulin dosing.”These projects are application-focused. They are designed to tackle clinical problems, and input from healthcare specialists working with patients was vital to their success. These conversations help steer the engineering and technological approach. They also inspire Maikawa to ask, “What’s next?” For her postdoctoral work, that meant a pivot to macro-scale devices for non-invasive treatment pathways and targeted drug delivery, investigating ways to develop a pill that could administer insulin or other protein therapies.“One of the key parts of my postdoc was thinking about how materials can respond to stimuli in the gastrointestinal tract and throughout the body. And how we can use materials that change in response to stimuli in the body like, for example, changes in glucose, to trigger more effective drug delivery,” she says.Today, Maikawa’s work pulls on all these threads, digging deeper into the clinical potential of material science and bioengineering to develop pills that could be taken orally and yet be super-targeted. Maikawa’s research group also explores new ways of monitoring disease in the gastrointestinal tract.&nbsp;“We can actually detect things that are local or specific to disease sites, so I am interested to see if we can develop new technologies that let us better and more easily monitor how our body is changing,” she says.&nbsp;Maikawa thinks the expertise of a microbiome specialist could advance this research. Her chances of finding one are good. Toronto takes proactive measures to foster an interdisciplinary research community, with forums for researchers to have conversations about shared interests and what they are working on. As Maikawa says, this is often how interdisciplinary collaborations start.Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

It takes many scientific perspectives to deliver new technologies that could revolutionise how we treat diabetes and monitor disease. At the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, research teams are applying their expertise to real-life clinical problems in search of innovations in bioengineering

Joint efforts propel transformative scientific discoveries

Joan, a senior technical staff member, posts in the technical staff Teams site that she is interested in exploring mentoring across the technician community. Would others like to participate? Colleagues respond positively and a small working group emerges. On the same site, a call is put out for a piece of kit needed for a student’s research. Offers quickly appear from other faculties.Harry is a newly arrived postdoctoral fellow. His colleague Julie, a lecturer, is helping induct him. Julie belongs to the early and emerging academic researcher network. She speaks enthusiastically about this local supportive community, encouraging Harry to sign up and join 400 of his peers. Harry joins, and immediately signs up for the colleague-led writing retreat. He also meets his faculty rep for a coffee.Colleen, a senior administrative professional, wants help to refocus the administrative community of practice (CoP) she has coordinated for some years. She recognises it has lost its original purpose and is no longer centred on its desired constituency. A plan to refocus on the core intent is developed with the support of the People and Culture unit. This includes defining membership and goals via a co-created charter.Joan, Harry and Colleen all have different CoP-related needs and experiences. What if the university could provide a common framework to support these networks?Supporting CoPs from set-up to self-sufficiencyAt the University of Canterbury, with the encouragement and support of our vice-chancellor and senior leaders, we recognise the value in supporting formalised pan-university communities of practice. These communities work across the organisation to facilitate boundary crossing and inter-unit collaboration. In our experience, such communities build trust, uncover and encourage appreciation of colleagues’ expertise, and support sharing of good practice leading to innovation. The collective power of cross-functional activities is recognised in the “people” strand of our strategy&nbsp;Tangata Tū, Tangata Ora.&nbsp;How to meet people on campusCommunities of practice: how to help them thriveUsing communities of practice to drive teaching innovationThis recognition has led to the development of a framework by People and Culture. This was deemed helpful to define a “pan-university community of practice” ensuring support was appropriately focused. The framework outlines support from set-up until self-sufficiency.It is early days, but some successes, challenges and lessons have emerged. Development and growth are occurring via constructive feedback and enthusiastic participation by members.A framework for university-wide communities of practiceOur framework has been designed to aid communities that desire additional support. Support may include help in getting established, or funding for events or development opportunities for those who step up as CoP leaders.The criteria for support include the number of members, a commitment to CoP autonomy, a senior leader sponsor, a charter developed by CoP members, an annual plan and a means of promoting the CoP to potential members, including new staff.A colleague and I have been working with current and budding CoPs to align them to our framework. As illustrated by the examples that opened this article, the groups are many and varied. Some concrete benefits so far can be illustrated using the community for technical staff (TechCop) as an example.TechCoP started last year to unite lab and workshop technical staff across our seven faculties. The vice-chancellor and the executive deans of science and engineering sponsor this group.&nbsp;Of 150-plus potential members, we have so far engaged with about 100 members via:events, including professional development, and opportunities to talk with senior leaderslab/workshop toursa Teams site including a popular “marketplace” channel, which allows members to seek or donate pieces of kit or materials.Benefits to existing and nascent communitiesA survey of members provided encouraging feedback such as:&nbsp;“Really appreciate the connection and sense of community.”“Meeting face to face via events and tours has helped get to know others and create a sense of belonging.”“Have really loved meeting new faces and feeling a better inclusion and community across campus. We’ve already been able to help each other as a result.”“I find the tours very helpful to help me understand what resources we have available in different departments."’Marketplace’" is great to allow sharing of equipment.CoPs create a space for purposeful cross-organisational interaction with a shared context. This goes beyond the well-known benefits of sharing knowledge and good practice to significant opportunities for building belonging, group problem-solving, innovation, leadership development and peer support that might not otherwise be realised.&nbsp;A formalised and supportive framework that includes senior leadership sponsorship provides a robust foundation to build from.Karen Mather is director of academy affiliation and organisational development in the People and Culture unit at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury, Aotearoa New Zealand.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Supporting communities of practice across an organisation can provide extraordinary benefits. Drawn from the author’s experience, these tips aim to build connection and engagement through a formalised framework and senior leader sponsorship

A framework to develop communities of practice

Researchers in the Device Foundry, one of three facilities comprising the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies&nbsp;(CRAFT), an ISI at the University of Toronto (Image credit: Dahlia Katz)It makes sense from an efficiency standpoint for universities to decentralise decision making, allowing faculties to manage their own operations. But this devolved organisational structure can present roadblocks for interdisciplinary innovation, leaving universities in need of a strategy to bring researchers together.&nbsp;At the University of Toronto, the Institutional Strategic Initiatives (ISIs) office provides this mechanism, and offers a practical example of how large universities can foster an environment in which interdisciplinary science thrives, allowing researchers to solve global grand challenges.&nbsp;Timothy Chan, the University of Toronto’s associate vice-president&nbsp;and vice-provost of strategic initiatives, says the university pools funding and academic talent from its various divisions and applies them to interdisciplinary projects.“The goal is not just to fund initiatives internally, because we can’t do that forever. But it’s to build a track record and set them up for external success,” he says. “We help build up the initiative, and then when the opportunity arises – whether it is a government grant, an industry partnership, a philanthropic opportunity – we are ready to capitalise because we have already got the structures, the teams and supports in place.”The ISIs cover a broad range of research topics, including climate change, transport and infrastructure, robotics and AI, and cutting-edge healthcare. The University of Toronto’s diverse research portfolio is crucial, allowing the university to roll the dice on high-risk projects without fear of failure.&nbsp;“We need to invest in these kinds of high-risk, high-reward initiatives because if we don’t, it will be harder to compete on the international stage for big opportunities,” Chan says. “We have very steady and stable research programmes that are advancing discoveries, which is great, and that remains a priority for support. But it has become clear that it is also crucial to develop a portfolio into which we make targeted investments, and for us, that’s the ISIs.”&nbsp;Partnerships with outside agencies, be they peer institutions, industry or governmental organisations such as the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, with which the University of Toronto has signed an extension to its five-year deal, can play a key role. The university’s partnership with the NRC has deepened over the years. One of the University of Toronto’s research projects is developing small-scale bio-medical fluidic devices that could be used to diagnose diseases without having to send a blood sample back to a laboratory. With a hospital partner now involved, researchers can trial innovations in a clinical setting.New partnerships can be brokered by building on the success of the ISIs, which help tell the story of research excellence at the University of Toronto. “The ISIs are an excellent way to bring together all of these diverse research stories into a very cohesive narrative,” Chan says.&nbsp;The message is clear: the University of Toronto is open for interdisciplinary collaboration and it has the resources to make it happen.&nbsp;Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.Find out more about the University of Toronto’s ISIs.

The University of Toronto’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives offer a compelling case study in what large, complex institutions can do to break down disciplinary silos and drive innovation

Targeted strategies for interdisciplinary innovation

Digital technologies have significantly transformed the world of dentistry and dental workflow over the past decade. But it is not only dental education that has needed to adapt; it is also healthcare design and engineering.&nbsp;At the Faculty of Dentistry of Semmelweis University in Budapest, we&nbsp;recognised the need for interdisciplinary collaboration early on. That is why, in 2022, in cooperation with the John von Neumann University of Kecskemét, we launched a digital dental design bachelor’s degree.&nbsp;Benefits and challenges of collaborating across disciplinesThroughout the training, engineering and medical skills are built on each other to create a body of knowledge that can be used in the highly specialised field of digital dentistry. This close cooperation has also required a significant degree of synchronisation between the universities in the areas of student records and administration.How to train world-champion cardiologistsSpotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingTeaching within virtual reality worlds: what, why and whenIt was necessary to put in place a cooperation agreement between the two universities. This clarified that the aggregate data of the subjects taught by the two universities would be managed by Semmelweis University for each student, established a common final examination system and synchronised the diploma thesis procedure.The course takes six semesters. Students complete 180 credits of course units. Part-time training has been deemed the most effective for this type of course. This means one week of face-to-face classes per month during the&nbsp;semesters for our students. Of this, 66 per cent is courses in medicine and healthcare taught by Semmelweis University and 34 per cent is undergraduate courses in basic engineering taught by John von Neumann University.&nbsp;In addition, students can decide at enrolment whether they wish to attend a dental technician course at Bókay School of Semmelweis University for the remaining three weeks of the month. If a student takes advantage of this opportunity, they can earn a degree as a dental technician and a digital dental designer at the same time. For our students who are not enrolled in the dental technician programme, the part-time nature of the training provides an opportunity to work alongside their university studies.Part-time training focused on practiceThe part-time training itself was a big challenge for the university’s lecturers because the Faculty of Dentistry had not had this type of delivery before. This field requires a strong focus on practical training, so we use a variety of online training platforms to motivate our students to continue their preparation and learning even during the weeks of distance learning. Contact hours are largely conducted in our demonstration labs and digital labs. We try to give our students the opportunity to learn how to use as much digital dental design software as possible, as well as to learn about manufacturing through additive and subtractive processes.&nbsp;Building and installing the necessary infrastructure was our first task when we started the course. Since then, the computer workstations, intraoral scanners, CAD software, milling units and 3D printers have not only helped to train digital dental designers, but have also become tools for undergraduate and postgraduate dental students as well as for several continuing education courses.&nbsp;During the weeks of distance learning, our students complete a variety of tasks. They are required to write classic essays on the main topics of each subject, and they have to complete CAD and 3D modelling software assignments. From the fifth semester onwards, training digital dental designers can improve the quality of care provided to patients treated by dental students. Intraoral scanners will be used to make the corresponding impressions of the teeth that dental students prepare in their practices. These are then used by digital dental design students to design bridges and crowns for temporary restorations. The designs are approved by our instructors and can be fabricated by the next practice, most often using additive technology. We expect these assignments and online communication to prepare our students for future work at home or remotely.Complementary skills and a joint degreeAs a result of the cooperation between the two universities, students who successfully complete the requirements will receive a diploma jointly awarded by Semmelweis and John von Neumann universities at the end of their studies.Digital dental designers will be able to support dental teams across the whole spectrum of dentistry, whether for prosthodontics, orthodontics oral surgery or periodontics.&nbsp;They will be able to assist in the digitalisation of dental practices and dental laboratories, and their knowledge will contribute to the efficient operation and innovation of digital technologies and tools in all areas of dentistry.Péter Hermann is vice-rector of education, head of the department of prosthodontics, and founder and head of the digital dental designer bachelor’s degree&nbsp;programme, and Szandra Körmendi is a senior lecturer in the department of prosthodontics and deputy head of the digital dental designer bachelor’s degree&nbsp;programme; both are at Semmelweis University, Budapest.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

A degree course that blends engineering and dentistry prepares students for their future practice. Here, Szandra Kormendi and Peter Hermann explain how it works

An inter-university and interdisciplinary approach to dental education

Project-based learning encourages students to combine knowledge from different subjects to solve complex, real-world problems. However, it brings challenges such as ensuring fair and transparent project assignments and maintaining smooth communication between students and teachers. This article explores strategies to overcome these and to promote students’ independence.1. Ensuring equitable and transparent project allocationOne of the primary challenges of project-based learning is ensuring that projects are distributed fairly among students while taking their diverse backgrounds, interests and skill sets into consideration. A possible solution could be to use technology to enhance the transparency and efficiency of project allocation.We have outsourced a specialised open-source Moodle plugin called “Fair Allocation”&nbsp;to optimise project allocation at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. It promotes transparency by allowing students to explore project details and prerequisites online in their own time. It also facilitates a more self-directed approach to students’ learning journeys by allowing them to browse through projects based on their strengths and interests.Implementing the Moodle-based automatic allocation system makes project distribution fairer. It allows students to make up to 10 ranked choices based on their preferences. Its algorithm then matches&nbsp;students with projects based on their chosen priorities and each project’s quota (the number of students each project can take), promoting equitability and fostering a diverse and interdisciplinary learning environment.2. Enhancing student autonomy and interdisciplinary learningEngaging students in autonomous, interdisciplinary learning is not easy, especially if they lack a clear understanding of the educational value of such an approach.A potential solution could be to implement student-centred pedagogical methods and foster a culture of autonomy via the following:Personalised learning paths:&nbsp;designing projects that are tailored to students’ interests and career aspirations can significantly enhance their engagement. By offering a wide range of projects that span multiple disciplines, educators empower students to chart their unique learning journeys.Real-time feedback:&nbsp;providing timely and constructive feedback is paramount when cultivating student autonomy. Our&nbsp;study&nbsp;shows that using digital platforms to provide real-time feedback and promote discussion helps students stay on track, grasp project requirements more effectively and make appropriate adjustments on time.Encouraging risk-taking:&nbsp;encouraging students to venture beyond their comfort zones and explore unfamiliar disciplines boosts creativity and innovation. Educators can design projects that bridge the gaps between different disciplines, challenging students to integrate diverse perspectives and develop novel solutions. This approach not only enhances interdisciplinary learning but promotes out-of-the-box thinking.Resource collection: Unpacking academic interdisciplinarityInterdisciplinarity in teaching: what it is and how to make it workFostering interdisciplinary learning in large-scale doctoral programmes3. Promoting effective communication between students and educatorsIt is important to ensure that communication between students and educators is unhindered by miscommunication, unclear expectations or a lack of feedback mechanisms. To do so, you can adopt a multifaceted communication strategy that leverages technology. Strategies include:Using relevant digital platforms:&nbsp;our&nbsp;study&nbsp;shows that setting up a digital platform specifically for project-related discussions, announcements and feedback can significantly improve communication. Platforms such as Moodle or Microsoft Teams offer many features, including discussion forums, file-sharing capabilities and real-time collaboration tools. These facilitate streamlined and effective communication among students and educators.Scheduling regular check-ins:&nbsp;scheduling check-ins between students and educators maintains communication channels. These check-ins can take various forms, such as virtual meetings, progress reports or casual conversations to resolve queries and concerns promptly and promote a culture of openness and accountability.Setting clear expectations and guidelines:&nbsp;establishing unambiguous guidelines and expectations at the project’s inception helps prevent misunderstandings and ensures all involved are aligned. Disseminating detailed project briefs, timelines and assessment rubrics helps with managing expectations and cultivates transparency and clarity that aids collaboration and the learning process.As we navigate higher education’s evolving landscape, we must adapt our approaches to learning, ensuring that students are prepared to tackle the complex challenges of an interconnected world. By harnessing technology and implementing student-centred pedagogies, educators can effectively address the challenges inherent in interdisciplinary project-based learning. These strategies can help create a robust framework that empowers students to develop interdisciplinary skill sets.&nbsp;Na Li is associate professor, director of the Digital Education Programme, and co-director of the Research Centre for AI and Education and the Academy of Future Education; Eng Gee Lim is dean of the School of Advanced Technology; and Mark Leach is deputy dean of the School of Advanced Technology,&nbsp;all at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

How to overcome challenges in project-based learning

Overcome project-based learning challenges with strategies aimed at empowering students to develop interdisciplinary skill sets

Practical strategies for overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary project-based learning

Policymakers increasingly recognise that no single area of expertise is enough to address the world’s most complex crises. More innovative approaches are needed in tackling challenges ranging from climate change and pandemics to the threat of artificial intelligence – approaches that take in the arts and humanities as well as science and technology.How to create an overnight scientific success (in 20 years)Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: investing in early career interdisciplinarityThe arts and humanities have not been forgotten: finding funding post-pandemicEnter interdisciplinarity, or research drawing on two or more disciplines. It’s a term sometimes opportunistically applied to any project involving multiple subjects, but what it requires is the actual integration of knowledge from these fields – not just a few researchers working independently around a common interest.Academic collaboration is rarely simple, and moving beyond disciplinary boundaries can throw up even more quandaries. How might political scientists work effectively with artists, say, or epidemiologists with historians? Will differences in training and methodology always be surmountable? Should one discipline take the lead over another?Then there are the obstacles that come with transdisciplinarity, which incorporates both academic and societal partners. Working with civic organisations can involve having to negotiate very different expectations and communication styles, or even simply different levels of availability.One of the most common dilemmas is how to go about preparing such research proposals.Team members will understand what their own disciplines can contribute to the project, but how to make the case for a truly collaborative approach?That’s one of the questions addressed by a major European Union-funded project championing interdisciplinarity.&nbsp;SHAPE-ID provides tailored guidance for stakeholders interested in pursuing such partnerships, with a range of multimedia resources designed to guide you through the process. The following guidance comes from the&nbsp;project’s new online toolkit.Ten tips for preparing interdisciplinary research proposals:Remember that your proposal will be read by a range of people, not just those within your research area: don’t assume knowledge of your discipline – describe (concisely) why your research is important, innovative and impactful.&nbsp;Don’t just describe your proposal as interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary. Explain why an inter- or transdisciplinary approach is necessary to achieve the intended research outcomes.&nbsp;Inter- and transdisciplinary proposals may be evaluated by those with expertise in collaborative research rather than your discipline. Write clearly for a general reader – use the minimum of technical language and abbreviations and define specialist terms when they are first used.&nbsp;Collaboration and integration take many forms and work to achieve. Outline what kind(s) of collaboration or integration you envisage (theoretical, methodological, etc) and the specific ways in which you hope to achieve this.&nbsp;&nbsp;Explain the methods that you plan to use and, if they are novel, give examples where they have been successfully used in other fields.&nbsp;&nbsp;Bear in mind the extra costs associated with inter- or transdisciplinary research, such as additional network building, and budget for them accordingly.&nbsp;&nbsp;If the research involves new collaborations, assume that these relationships will take time to develop and provide opportunities, both formal and informal, for this to happen, especially at the start of the project.&nbsp;&nbsp;If the research includes different types of stakeholders, describe what they bring to the research, what and when they are expected to contribute, and how they will benefit from taking part.&nbsp;&nbsp;Plan for a range of outputs to be produced across the lifetime of the project – this protects against failure and satisfies the needs of different collaborators. Academic publications are usually of little importance to societal partners who will often need more focused outputs – a programme of activities or a new tool to pilot – to justify their continued involvement in the project.&nbsp;&nbsp;Criteria for authorship vary considerably across disciplines. Describe how authorships for project outputs will be allocated – or a process for agreeing on this early in the project – otherwise this can become a major problem.Reflective questions to ask when planning an interdisciplinary research collaboration:Does everyone know who all the partners are and what they will bring to the project? Have all partners been able to contribute to the design of this project? Do the research questions frame the topic in ways that are engaging and fruitful for all partners? Has a shared understanding of the project’s aims and purpose been explicitly stated and agreed upon?&nbsp;&nbsp;Is the research design predefined in the project proposal or to be negotiated among the group? Will there be opportunities for partners to learn about each other’s research methods and perspectives on the topic? How will you avoid making assumptions about partners’ approaches to the topic?&nbsp;&nbsp;How will you ensure that no one group or perspective dominates the research process? Are there mechanisms in place to enable the ongoing exchange of ideas and opinions across disciplines and sectors? Will there be regular meetings that all project partners are expected to attend? Will all partners have the opportunity to provide feedback on project development and outputs? What happens if they cannot reach consensus?It can be a tricky process, but the potential rewards of such collaborations are great. Getting these first steps right is crucial in paving the way to a successful outcome.Catherine Healy recently completed an Irish Research Council-funded PhD at the Department of History at Trinity College Dublin.&nbsp;Catherine Lyall and Isabel Fletcher of the University of Edinburgh are partners of SHAPE-ID, a project that brings together scholars from across Europe to examine interdisciplinary practices.If you found this interesting and want advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the&nbsp;THE Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Advice on drafting successful research proposals to secure support and funding for interdisciplinary projects, from three academics with experience developing research partnerships and collaborations

All together now: how to write an interdisciplinary research proposal

Interdisciplinary research is growing in popularity and is increasingly seen as essential. Multiple perspectives on research challenges will often lead to better outcomes. For example, in the BBC’s 2021 Reith Lectures on&nbsp;AI, it was proposed that “every AI centre that’s working ought to have a resident philosopher or ethicist on board to prick the consciences or at least remind people that this is important”.A common obvious challenge of interdisciplinary research, though, is that one is not just stepping outside boundaries in terms of creating new knowledge but that one is creating (or at least amalgamating) research methodologies. This stepping out of our “comfort methodology zone” creates stresses and can cause risks for staff careers and department reputation.Eight ways your university can make research culture more openEnhance your research through public engagement and collaborationEqual research partnerships are a myth – but we can change thatAdditionally, differing values and language create barriers to successful collaboration and group cohesion generally. Given the above, how can we successfully establish and run interdisciplinary research teams?A research culture of openness and fluidityCulture is vital. It is important that the prevailing culture is open and egalitarian, empowering researchers to cross research areas, methodologies or communities without fear of failure. Ways in which one can create this is to remove as much unnecessary structure and formal process as possible.Leadership should adopt an anti-structure, anti-committee approach allowing connections and groupings to be generated bottom up by researchers who find common interest. This means minimising the extent to which organisational roles are considered and to reduce or eliminate hierarchical line management structures.Task-oriented teams are the main structure that should be adopted – bringing together individuals who can contribute to a research artefact no matter if they are academics, PhD students, lab technicians, software developers or professional service staff.Within a team, all members should be willing to work on all tasks as time and ability permit. This “team not&nbsp;role” standpoint should permeate all areas. My lab even has a fridge-cleaning rota that all staff are expected to participate in (when we are not in a pandemic).Another important aspect of the culture is to foster individual freedom. Researchers should be free to pursue any research field that they deem interesting through any means. Resources should be accessible with few barriers. We have found that nothing reduces efficiency and motivation more than having to go through internal bidding processes, especially when the available funds are small. Within my lab, our view is, whenever feasible, to simply say “yes” to every request we receive.Hand in hand with this approach are the following constraints and responsibilities:Staff numbers: The attributes of agility and minimal structure and processes constrain the size of the research unit. From our experience, we estimate that 80&nbsp;personnel total – all staff and PhD students – is about the limit. Beyond that, there is a loss of personal connectivity whereby culture and trust are harder to maintain.Setting research targets: The main objective for research staff is to “make an impact” either on academia or society in general. One needs, though, to be careful about how objectives are measured. We use what we term the “Sistine Chapel” KPI: periodically, significant impact should be generated. Micro-measurements can harm a culture as staff start to view their relationship with the research unit as transactional and one that should be gamed.A shared mission: A unifying totem is the last element of culture that we believe is important to success. All staff need to agree at some level on a common epistemological standpoint. For example, we take the Open University’s core mission around equity and openness and add technological innovation. All our research is thus broadly aimed at providing societal good through technology, and we expect and encourage our staff to be ultra-early technology adopters.Hiring and retaining research talentSuccessful researchers tend to be highly motivated and highly skilled. Within a multidisciplinary context, it is important that all staff also have an open attitude and are thus able to engage with new research frameworks and discipline value systems and semantics.Seeking candidates who strongly align with the general unit values and totems is crucial. Over the years we have developed a hiring strategy that places an emphasis on the best places to advertise, which networks to use and how to best highlight what we offer.Talent retention is a topic that is constantly explored and discussed by senior staff in my lab. Interdisciplinary researchers will often be highly sought after and, in some sectors, will be able to command far higher salaries in industry.In addition to the cultural elements outlined above, our strategy for retaining staff is based on:Taking career development seriously: Often overlooked in busy research environments, by senior and junior staff, it is important that all staff have clear career paths and that these are supported. Support will include:intensive mentoring on areas that need development, for example, funding acquisitionunderstanding barriers at the level of the individual (eg, lacking a skill), unit (eg, biased judgements) and organisation (eg, challenging HR policies)ensuring that all academic staff have an “academic home” that they can grow into as their stature increases.&nbsp;Understanding and proactively fighting for all staff needs: A key duty for all line managers and especially the head of the research team is to listen to staff and engage with all other areas to create the best possible work environment. Typical areas that we have discussed lately have covered: visas, working through a pandemic with ill dependants who live outside the UK and supporting staff who wish to engage with the wider community.We are lucky that the Open University is a serious listener. Any serious concern we raise is either resolved quickly or leads to engagement with the institution’s executive. This has enabled us to create an interdisciplinary research environment that is highly regarded externally and where staff in all roles have overwhelmingly reported positive feelings about the work environment. I&nbsp;can personally say that this combination is richly rewarding.John Domingue is director of the Knowledge Media Institute at the Open University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

How to develop and run interdisciplinary research teams

John Domingue explains how to foster a culture of openness and support that encourages and helps staff teams to pursue interdisciplinary research projects

How to successfully develop and run interdisciplinary research teams

A survey of Northwestern University’s latest research projects highlights the institution’s commitment to interdisciplinary science and reveals how vital these cross-disciplinary approaches are for transforming our world. These successes often involve innovative investigations from its medical and engineering faculty, with projects bridging the university’s Chicago and suburban Evanston campuses.&nbsp;For example, one&nbsp;research project uses sensors to improve treatment paths for patients with Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disorder. The full story of how Northwestern became a top-ranked research institution has deep roots.Eric Perreault, vice-president for research at Northwestern, suggests the story dates to at least the 1950s when research initiatives led to the university’s biomedical engineering and materials science departments being launched. These efforts established an impact-focused research environment that resisted siloed thinking.“This interdisciplinary research culture is deeply embedded in Northwestern,” Perreault says. We have worked hard to foster interdisciplinary research on campus and continue this tradition. One way we have done it is through our 35&nbsp;university-wide research institutes and centres (URICs), which fuel innovation and translation.”Northwestern’s research culture manifests itself in the scale of its operations and the infrastructure it has developed. More than 700 Northwestern faculty from 100 different departments work within the URICs. One relatively recently established URIC focuses on&nbsp;synthetic biology, bringing together biology, engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science and social sciences under one roof. Northwestern is already considered a leader in this cross-field domain, and its synthetic biology faculty has launched multiple start-up ventures, adding to the university’s&nbsp;entrepreneurial portfolio.&nbsp;“We have this really interdisciplinary approach attempting to drive transformative innovation in various areas, including targeted drug development, sustainable manufacturing and advanced materials. To do that, you need to have a deep understanding of biology, a deep understanding of how to engineer new systems, and a deep understanding of the challenges people are facing,” Perreault says.There are more than 50 core facilities on campus, where researchers can access PhD-level expertise and state-of-the-art equipment for gene sequencing, imaging, or materials characterisation. When Northwestern invested $8 million (£6.4 million) in a cryo-electron microscopy system, it ensured that faculty from myriad disciplines could access it.“Our shared facilities increase access to top-tier instrumentation and provide a common platform that brings faculty from different disciplines together for a common purpose,” Perreault says. “They see each other when designing experiments or collecting data, often spurring new ideas and collaborations.”Third-party partnerships can yield dramatic results,&nbsp;such as Northwestern’s collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, which developed stickers that monitor a patient’s internal organs via ultrasound, offering an early warning sign for post-operation complications.Northwestern also contributes to and benefits from a first-class regional research ecosystem. With two national laboratories nearby, it can access supercomputers and other resources that no university could afford. At the same time, it contributes to research excellence in numerous fields, from chemistry and materials science to physics, medicine and various engineering domains. It also partners with fellow regional institutions when applying for federal or foundation funding. A three-way project with the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign secured a $250 million (£200 million) grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to fund a&nbsp;pioneering biotech hub, the president of which is a Northwestern faculty member.Research culture and history can only take an institution so far. Ultimately, academic talent sustains innovation, and Northwestern offers a fantastic environment and attractive opportunities to faculty and students alike. After all, Perreault says, recruitment is the bedrock of Northwestern’s success: “One of the things we are doing well is educating the next generation of global talent – students who will bring exceptional and highly interdisciplinary skills to industry and academia.”&nbsp;Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

At Northwestern University, a long history of interdisciplinary collaboration among its world-class faculty generates groundbreaking research

It takes connections to become a research superpower

Research impact is an important indicator of the reputation of academics and their institutions. As director of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) Academy for Interdisciplinary Research (PAIR), a research platform dedicated to impactful interdisciplinary research, here are my thoughts on how universities can develop impactful research and make meaningful, society-changing findings.Making research practical and influentialWhile theoretical research focuses on delving into the origins of the universe and human existence out of pure curiosity, applied research examines practical matters and seeks to generate solutions to real-world problems. It aims to bring direct, positive impact to society, across individuals, industries and communities.Driving change through knowledge: how to increase policy impactIt’s high time we rethought policy impactAdvice for effective cross-team collaboration for researchResearch findings need to be translated into real-world solutions to have extensive practical impact. We need technologies, services and interventions that are accessible for adoption and use by society. This involves collaboration both within and beyond the university.PAIR collaborates closely with other key PolyU units, including the Research and Innovation Office and the Knowledge Transfer and Entrepreneurship Office, for the patenting and licensing of our solutions. We also collaborate with industry and end users so that innovations are designed to be fit for purpose. In this way, proprietary technologies can be adopted by government and industry, and related products powered by these cutting-edge technologies can be made available for purchase in the market.An example of impactful research from a PAIR constituent unit is Liverscan. A palm-sized real-time brightness (B)-mode ultrasound imaging guided system, it was developed for liver fibrosis assessment, marking a major step in promoting a precise, effective and non-invasive method for diagnosing liver diseases in China. To manufacture and market the system, the research team founded Eieling Technology Limited, enabling the use of this patented innovation in a number of hospitals and medical examination centres in Hong Kong and mainland China. It will soon be introduced to the mainland Chinese consumer market. The start-up was listed on Forbes Asia 100 To Watch 2023.The success of Liverscan is just one example of how applied research can achieve extensive impact through different interlocking processes, from research and development, assessment, patenting and licensing to marketing, and through collaborations at local, national and international levels.Identifying research prioritiesA clear, well-defined, appropriate research scope is another prerequisite for impactful research. But tackling complex societal challenges requires interdisciplinary expertise.At PAIR, we have established 18 constituent research units, each comprising PolyU researchers from different schools and departments. Each unit focuses on applied research in a frontier area that falls under three key themes: advanced technologies and manufacturing, good health and well-being, and smart, sustainable cities. Responding to local development needs and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, they provide innovative, cost-effective solutions that facilitate land, city and infrastructure development, promote physical and mental health, and support high-end, high value-added manufacturing and technologies.As I noted previously, collaboration is key to impactful applied research. It should be embraced at various levels and include: interdisciplinary collaboration within and between research units and between these and other academic units; inter-institutional collaboration between the university and academic/research institutions worldwide; and cross-sectoral collaboration with industry and government.On this, PAIR constituent research units have contributed to the university’s collaboration with industries, businesses, professional associations and government bodies in Hong Kong and worldwide. We have set up joint research projects, institutes, centres and laboratories dedicated to developing new technologies in diverse areas, including sports, advanced manufacturing, land development, human health and many more. &nbsp;Overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary researchCollaboration is crucial in helping overcome obstacles when pursuing large-scale interdisciplinary research. It can help with enhancing cross-disciplinary communication among researchers so that team members with different expertise are aligned towards achieving a common goal. Sharing laboratories and equipment with other academic units can allow physical assets to be used effectively. Collaborating can also engage industries and top institutions worldwide, creating emergent research and funding opportunities.Here are three examples to show how to provide this support:PAIR Researchers’ Corner is a regular activity, bringing together PolyU researchers from across disciplines for research exchange in a casual setting.Institutions can hold regular research salons, allowing for cross-sectional exchange between researchers and industry representatives.Encourage researchers to visit government and enterprise representatives frequently to explore the potential for joint projects and establish potential joint research units in frontier areas.University research can – and should – take many different directions and forms. Achieve the end-goal of research impact through applied, interdisciplinary research that has a clear focus and generates practical, accessible solutions. The success of interdisciplinary research lies in collaboration – both internal collaboration within a university and external collaboration with industry and governments. It should be embraced at all levels within the university.Qingyan Chen is director of PolyU Academy for Interdisciplinary Research at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus newsletter.

Maximise your research impact through collaboration

What’s the best way to achieve research impact? Qingyan Chen makes the case for an interdisciplinary approach

Maximise your research impact through interdisciplinary collaboration

What is interdisciplinarity?Interdisciplinary education is all the rage, but we don’t all mean the same thing by that phrase. Sometimes, the term ends up being used synonymously with “effective education that prepares students for a complex world”, which is not helpful as it focuses on an outcome rather than the process. There is also an association between interdisciplinarity and the idea of a “broad” or “generalist education” or getting students to learn or be exposed to multiple or contrasting subjects.As with most buzzwords, neither those who praise interdisciplinarity nor those who complain about it can be assumed to be commenting on the same thing.Spotlight guide: A focus on interdisciplinarity in teachingDesigning postgraduate education as a means of sharing and developing academic and professional knowledgeDeveloping research skills post-pandemic: creating space for reflection and conversationSo, it can be helpful to turn to scholarly definitions. Marilyn Stember of the University of Colorado defined interdisciplinarity as the “integration of the contributions of several disciplines to a problem or issue” where this integration “brings interdependent parts of knowledge into harmonious relationships”.She also contrasts interdisciplinarity with:multidisciplinarity, when several disciplines “each provide a different perspective on a problem or issue”; andtransdisciplinarity, which involves an even higher level of integration, where the disciplinary perspectives themselves fall away, to be replaced by a “unity of intellectual frameworks”.How to put interdisciplinarity into practice when designing coursesHow does all this look operationally within a single course? Probably the simplest way to introduce interdisciplinarity is to make sure that we consciously build courses around identifiable complex issues and topics, rather than disciplines.Let’s take a standard intermediate economics course as an example – something like “Introduction to macroeconomics”. This will typically focus on teaching students a set of economic models and tools to analyse data and make predictions. In the same way, a course from psychology, maybe “developmental psychology”, will help students become familiar with the dominant theories in this subdiscipline. &nbsp;These lessons are much-needed milestones in the training of economists and psychologists. But what if we were to take our eyes off training someone as a disciplinary expert, and focus on offering them access to interdisciplinarity? It would seem more expedient to begin from the other direction – from issues and aspects in the world.We might be thinking of the impact of ageing on the human mind, or the domestication of rice, or climate change mitigation, or managing the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. These are issues and topics that, by virtue of their natural complexity, require integration of insights and tools from a variety of disciplines – perhaps economics, and psychology, and physics, and chemistry, to name a few – in order to build understanding or find resolutions to these multifaceted problems.Nonetheless, most university professors have PhDs in specific disciplines and are rewarded and promoted for producing highly specialised contributions (ie, “impactful” research that gains the approval of their equally specialised peers). Inevitably, this means instructors who can embody that integration of insights and tools don’t grow on trees and these skills need to be developed.Teaching in interdisciplinary teamsOne way to overcome this hurdle is to teach in teams. But if the team is merely multidisciplinary – colleagues from different disciplines each providing distinct perspectives on a problem or issue – we haven’t quite achieved that desired integration either.The teams need to be true collaborations with a unity of purpose defined by the topic at hand. This requires professors who, while specialists in their own fields, are broad-minded in the way they approach the issues they care about and are not fastidious about disciplinary purity.We are looking for colleagues whose involvement in such a course isn’t just so that they can “teach their share of physics, philosophy or computing” as part of a line-up of several topics, but instead to work together as a team, united by the joint aim of illuminating the shared topic for the benefit of the students. We need more academics able and willing to take this approach.Interdisciplinarity in university programmesSo far, so good for the individual course. But what about at the programme level?One plea I should make is that we do not mistakenly think that just because something is good, it must be implemented everywhere.For students to profit from a topic-based interdisciplinary course, they will still need a good grounding in transferable foundational competencies, such as quantitative thinking, critical thinking, constructing written arguments, computational reasoning and empirical inquiry.Otherwise, those topic-based interdisciplinary courses end up pitched too low. What this means is that an interdisciplinary education at the programme level should comprise courses laying foundations in transferable competencies alongside explicitly topic-based interdisciplinary courses.Ironically, what this means is that administrators and designers of a programme may well need to resist a temptation to make all parts of their charge maximally interdisciplinary. Different parts of a programme are needed to serve different roles.Some parts will be highly interdisciplinary while others will be preparatory and only interdisciplinary within a narrow range. And yet others may be geared towards producing the highly knowledgeable specialists of narrowly focused fields, who we still need in a complex modern society.Bear in mind, the formal curriculum can only do so much. Beyond that, there are also important lessons to be gleaned from out-of-classroom experiential learning, projects, residential communities, global opportunities. All have their own parts to play in contributing to a modern interdisciplinary progamme.If we do our jobs as educators and programme designers well, even the specialists should be ready and willing to work together with those from other specialisms, to help understand complex issues or to solve the problems facing humanity.Loy Hui Chieh is an associate professor and vice-dean of external relations and student life in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at National University of Singapore.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered directly to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

What is interdisciplinarity in teaching?

Loy Hui Chieh explains what true interdisciplinarity is and how to successfully embed it into university courses 

What is interdisciplinarity in teaching and how can we make it work?

Pressing global challenges spark the need for multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and convergence research. These terms are often used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences between them.Multidisciplinary research involves faculty from different disciplines working independently on a common research problem or a thematic area to supplement each other’s data. Interdisciplinary research involves working collaboratively across disciplinary boundaries to develop integrated knowledge that meets a specific challenge. Such collaboration has led to the emergence of novel areas such as photonics, nanoscience and technology, material sciences and neurosciences. &nbsp;The emerging convergence research area facilitates the transdisciplinary merging of life sciences, physical sciences, engineering and beyond to stimulate innovation from basic science discovery to translational research. Such merging requires a deep integration of collaborating disciplines and its results should have a positive societal impact. This resource outlines the advantages and challenges of working beyond the comfort zones of discipline-specific research.AdvantagesActive knowledge exchange (creation): this kind of collaboration facilitates active collaboration and concept sharing between parties across different disciplines. Such interactions lead to specific knowledge exchange, skills development, fresh insight and solution-driven pathways that are only achievable when working across disciplines. For example, many of the healthcare devices that we routinely employ are the outcome of efficient collaboration and knowledge exchange between clinicians, engineers and scientists. &nbsp;Well-rounded solutions to complex global challenges: addressing real-world global challenges such as climate change, energy crises, agriculture demand and water scarcity requires expertise across different domains including physics, chemistry, economics, politics and others. Therefore, breaking the silos of disciplines via interdisciplinary and convergence research is vital if we want to facilitate innovative and well-rounded solutions. &nbsp;The creation of new scientific fields: interdisciplinary or convergence research can result in in-depth interaction between scholars across disciplines. This can lead to the development of completely new fields of enquiry that explore uncharted territory.Creativity and skills development: the blending of varied expertise through such research projects often leads to productive and high-impact experimentation, analysis and out-of-the-box thinking, as we saw with the production of Covid vaccines. In addition, cross-disciplinary research subjects such as photonics, nanoscience and technology and structural biology provide researchers with opportunities to work on research ventures beyond their existing skill sets and knowledge. This opens the mind and enhances communication skills. Arguably the most exciting outcomes of such collaboration, however, include improved problem-solving skills, research outcomes, understanding of complex phenomena and high-calibre innovations.Resources for higher education professionals on interdisciplinarityBreaking down disciplinary silos in pursuit of innovationPractical strategies for overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary project-based learningChallengesDisciplinary boundaries and jargon: researchers from different disciplines use their specialised language and theories which can create obstacles to communication. The key to overcoming such boundaries is to be inclusive with language by using simple, everyday terminology that collaborators from different fields can understand.Communication issues: finding common ground among people with different ways of thinking and approaches to problem-solving is often challenging. This kind of collaboration can lead to communication difficulties and disagreement that can hinder research progress. Knowing your audience, organising the information effectively and focusing on the output can facilitate seamless communication. Be culturally sensitive and use open channels of communication with efficient feedback loops.Knowledge imbalance: team members must have a general understanding of each other’s disciplines to collaborate effectively. To conduct rigorous research, a balance of general knowledge and disciplinary expertise is important, but finding team members with this can be a formidable task.Resource management: interdisciplinary and convergence research projects often require infrastructure and resources from various institutions and funding agencies which is often difficult to obtain and manage. Although the emergence of interdisciplinary research centres and departments in universities and institutes promises a positive change, people and resource management pose challenges. The time researchers have to invest in familiarising themselves with new peers from diverse backgrounds can delay research progress.It is heartening to see that the governments of many countries putting efforts into skills development for multi-, interdisciplinary and convergence research in higher education. Despite their challenges, the perks that they offer far outweigh them.Sajan Daniel George is a professor and the head of the department for atomic and molecular physics at Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India.If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week,&nbsp;sign up for the Campus&nbsp;newsletter.

Interdisciplinary vs multidisciplinary and convergence resea

Global challenges demand collaboration across disciplines. This resource explores the associated advantages and challenges

Interdisciplinary vs multidisciplinary and convergence research

Building the foundations for a sustained human presence on the Moon requires the support of scientists, engineers, policymakers and researchers from across the globe. Intentionally forming research communities, in which scientists and engineers of diverse abilities and disciplinary backgrounds have a forum to collaborate across shared goals, is crucial.A future lunar outpost requires the translation of both existing technologies and the development of new technologies for the lunar and cislunar space. Such technologies can be used to automate construction, improve communication and navigation across the lunar surface, and to sustainably harness power in the harsh lunar environment. Developing a lunar outpost demands a huge effort from our tenacious terrestrial science and research communities.&nbsp;“We are in this place right now with space exploration where we are trying to bring in way more people and way more non-traditional partners than we have ever had,” says Wesley Fuhrman, a senior scientist in the Space Exploration Sector at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.&nbsp;Fuhrman is a leader for Nasa’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Lunar Operating Guidelines for Infrastructure Consortium. These research communities comprise academic, industry and government stakeholders engaging in an open dialogue.&nbsp;“We are developing the technologies and recommending interoperating standards for a sustained presence and commercial economy on the Moon, so not just to drop the lander down for a couple of days and come back up,” Fuhrman says. “That is a huge process in going from footprint to foothold. The only way you can get to that point is to leverage the phenomenal technology base that has developed since then.”Fuhrman’s experience as a Schmidt Science Fellow gave him some ideas of how research communities bolster interdisciplinary research. “Strong and defined values and ethics build communities, and openly discussing them helps establish a culture that forms the bedrock,” Furman says. “I prefer to be explicit when we talk. What are we trying to accomplish when we are having our sessions? How do we want to support each other? We learned a lot of that through the Schmidt Science programme. We were very much encouraged from the get-go, with dedicated time and attention paid to creating a culture.”“Allowing the community to both organically and intentionally be built around its shared ethics and develop the people within it, is what yields results,” Fuhrman says. “Keep the focus on the community and shared vision, not just the output. If you do that, you’ll end up getting much better output anyway.”Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

Large-scale projects, such as creating a sustained presence on the Moon, are complex, interdisciplinary endeavours that test researchers to the limit. But with support from the research community – united by common purpose and values – lunar development efforts can take a giant leap towards establishing an outpost on the Moon

Shooting for the Moon with interdisciplinary approaches to lunar development

Image credit: Josh Fee

Interdisciplinary science thrives when researchers are given the time, space and freedom to pursue their intellectual curiosity in environments where no question is considered off-limits. Those conditions are not always easy to find on campus, where incentive structures encourage specialisation, often leaving the big ideas on ice. 

Rachel Parker, senior director of research and head of next-generation initiatives at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), says this has to change. She believes that organisations like CIFAR can play a vital role in supporting scientists by putting them in a room together and developing their most ambitious ideas – those that might have been too radical,&nbsp;or simply too interdisciplinary, to be entertained elsewhere.

“We want people to come with their earliest possible idea, something that is truly formative and is going to benefit from the collective knowledge around the table,” Parker says. “All CIFAR programmes are orientated around the next big idea, the next challenge, ones that are so complex that they necessitate a really broad constellation of people, an interdisciplinary perspective, in order to make progress on fundamental research.”

CIFAR facilitates interdisciplinary science through a number of initiatives. Its research programmes might involve a collaboration between up to 25 fellows, and operate on renewable five-year terms with no sunset clause in recognition that this is work that requires long-term commitment. “It takes a long time for these highly interdisciplinary groups to build a shared language, a shared sense of direction and trust across the group,” says Parker. CIFAR offers a space for ideas that might not fit the traditional disciplinary mould in other academic contexts. Its meetings are hosted under the Chatham House Rule, encouraging open discussion.

CIFAR supports early-career researchers through its Azrieli Global Scholars Programme, which grants junior faculty C$100,000 (£58,000) over two years, in addition to the opportunity to work alongside established researchers. The programme also provides seed funding via Catalyst Grants, which further enable early-career researchers with interdisciplinary projects to take bigger risks. “It has to be an idea that has no obvious home,” Parker says. “We have a couple of examples where those have spun out into half-a-million-dollar grants further down the line. It doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it enables these researchers to further their impact and their careers. It’s rewarding to know that CIFAR provided the space for that conversation to even happen in the first place.”

In addition to its Azrieli Global Scholars Programme, CIFAR’s Child and Brain Development programme piloted a training scheme offering mentorship to late-career graduate students and postdoctoral students, exposing them to the reality of life as an interdisciplinary scientist, in which there is always something new to learn.

“They get exposure to how their mentors are asking questions when they don’t understand something,” Parker says. “That is also crucial: being willing to show your vulnerabilities, that you have something to learn from another discipline.”

CIFAR partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows&nbsp;in 2023 to bring together a group of CIFAR-Azrieli Global Scholars and Schmidt Science Fellows to explore opportunities&nbsp;for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.

Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

Getting multidisciplinary projects off the ground can be a heavy lift for even the most motivated scientists, but forward-thinking organisations like CIFAR are willing to lend a hand, convening international research groups and offering the much-needed support to develop their ideas

Where the boldest research ideas find a home

Image credit: Claudine Gossett

Discussions of impactful research often focus on the bigger picture: impact at a societal level, how an innovation might revolutionise an industry or improve the lives of a particular community. And yet for researchers like Sandya Subramanian, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, impact is something they can put a name and a face to.

Subramanian’s research focuses on developing a physiological monitoring system that gathers data from the autonomic nervous system in chronic migraine patients. The work is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring computational and hardware expertise, and it finds her deployed in clinical settings, where patients will often consider her a part of their clinical team. 

“People will share aspects of their life with you and be very open and vulnerable with you in ways that sometimes is very intimidating to handle,” she says. “But one of the benefits of being interdisciplinary all this time is that I have been trained, I have a familiarity with clinical environments that really helps that.”

Being embedded as a “pseudo member” of the clinical team, collecting this data herself and interacting with patients, Subramanian enjoys a unique perspective on her research and considers her patients co-collaborators whose feedback on the monitoring technology is invaluable.

“It gives you this very human perspective,” she says. “You get this very real kind of sampling like when people come back and tell you, ‘Well, this was a little hard to wear. This was a little uncomfortable’. It gives you a very real sampling of the real-world problems of implementing this. As a scientist, it also gives you a whole new perspective on the data.”

The American Migraine Foundation estimates that up to 148 million people worldwide have chronic migraines, with three to five per cent of the US population affected. Subramanian hopes the data pooled from the autonomic nervous system – which she describes as a bridge between brain and body – can be used to inform better treatment pathways.

“The autonomic nervous system is probably the less-loved child because everyone focuses on what happens in the brain directly and the spinal cord next, and then everyone is interested in things like movement and decision-making and emotion,” she says. “They are all so much more sexier sounding than basic reflexes, right? The autonomic nervous system gets a lot less attention and therefore has been far less studied.”

It might be less-studied but it’s no less important. The data collected by this technology could offer insights into any number of conditions. More broadly, the application of wearable physiological sensors could change the existing healthcare paradigm, with data insights gleaned from wearable tech facilitating more personalised medicine. If successful, Subramanian’s patients will have played their part.

“Most patients are happy to participate because they see it as their way of giving back to the healthcare system,” she says. “They are asking lots of questions and are really happy to take on some inconvenience and participate and for that I have always been very grateful.”

Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.

Find out more&nbsp;about Schmidt Science Fellows.

At the frontiers of computational research and medical hardware, interdisciplinary approaches offer hope to chronic migraine patients through ground-breaking physiological sensors and analytical tools that analyse the autonomic nervous system for clues about the debilitating condition

Inside the data-driven search for migraine relief

Society’s digital transformation is still in its infancy and yet we already have an ocean of data to draw upon. But if all this information is to provide us with the raw material for innovation, we need scientists who can interpret it. Sahil Loomba is one such scientist. A Schmidt Science Fellow&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Institute for Data, Systems and Society&nbsp;at&nbsp;Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Loomba specialises in applying mathematics and machine learning to better understand complex networks and systems, from the biological and cognitive to the social.

“Networks are my favourite abstraction, and I try to view physical, biological, social, technological, and ecological systems from that perspective. Without that holistic view, we risk being reductionist and unable to plug significant gaps in our knowledge of these complex systems,” Loomba says.

“We are swimming in a lot of data, but to really make sense of that we need to understand the underlying network structure, the mechanisms that are generating that data, to determine what is happening causally,” he says. “For me, it is not just a helpful lens to view the world from, and intellectually stimulating, but it is also a matter of actively solving practical problems.”

Loomba was a computer science and engineering undergraduate when he realised his intellectual curiosity would take him across disciplinary boundaries. He could see how mathematical and computational approaches might help solve problems in biological systems. Loomba’s predoctoral work at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering gave him first-hand experience of an interdisciplinary research environment.

“It exemplifies the idea of interdisciplinary science and engineering because, under one roof, it had engineers, biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians and doctors working together to respond to extremely complicated challenges in biology and medicine,” he says. “The kinds of outputs that we had were amazing; taking a networked view of genetic perturbations allowed us to successfully repurpose drugs for rare genetic conditions that have now entered clinical trials. It really drove it home for me that interdisciplinary science is what motivates me. It helps us solve real problems in an integrative manner that traditional disciplinary silos often don’t.”

For his doctoral work at Imperial College London, Loomba pivoted to studying misinformation, vaccination behaviours and social segregation in friendship networks, responding to several societal challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. He became a Schmidt Science Fellow in 2023, and the fellowship has allowed him to negotiate many of the obstacles that interdisciplinary scientists face, not least the pressure to publish. It has allowed him to engage in more academic partnerships and to take on more ambitious projects, with the fellowship removing some of the risks that come with cross-disciplinary work.

“I think one of the most wonderful things about the fellowship is that it is a fellowship; we are in a community of people who care for the same things at the end of the day, which is interdisciplinary science,” Loomba says. “We felt seen and heard in terms of the way we like to approach scientific research. That is a big component. It puts me at a kind of psychological ease as a somewhat iconoclastic researcher who is not going to stick to the norm.”

This scientific iconoclasm underpins Loomba’s sweeping research philosophy, which places computation at the heart of understanding the intricate networks that organise our world, from those on a biomolecular level to the systems governing society. “It would be good to see expanded support for researchers pursuing interdisciplinary sciences at all career stages, recognising the important role this approach can play in addressing the challenges we face,” Loomba concludes.

Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.

Find out more about Schmidt Science Fellows.

Our lives are governed by complex connected systems, and Schmidt Science Fellow Sahil Loomba has made it his life’s work to understand them. He is taking an interdisciplinary path, combining computation, statistics and machine-learning approaches to improve the world we live in

Understanding complex systems with computational power and interdisciplinary science

Intellectual curiosity is what animates scientists to do what they do – to dig deeper and ask the big questions. It does not heed disciplinary boundaries, and so, when those big questions take a scientist to the edge of their expertise, they must decide whether to follow their curiosity over it. Moving into new fields to translate biological insights into new robot capabilities is exactly how Ryan Truby, a biomedical engineer by undergraduate training, ended up at Northwestern University as an assistant professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 

A synopsis of Truby’s recent grants reads with the air of science fiction, spanning artificial muscle tissues for locomotion in soft machines to robotic architected materials with distributed sensorimotor capabilities. Truby’s research is centred on bridging the gap between living organisms and their capabilities and the world of robotics. It resides at the interface of materials engineering and robotics.

“We have a wealth of understanding about how the human body – or any living organism – works, how it is built and what materials comprise it,” he says. “We can look at robotics and quickly see that some of these insights might help us advance machine intelligence in new and critical ways. This is the problem space my lifelong curiosities have brought me to, taking those insights from biology and thinking about how I can translate them to advance the capabilities of robots. My hope is that the journey ahead will enable us to materialise true autonomy, true intelligence, in ways that computational approaches alone simply can’t.”

Truby made his pivot to materials science as a PhD student at Harvard University, where he found the intellectual breathing space to explore the construction of bioinspired robots and devices from soft matter. He notes it was a time when he first felt the tension between disciplinary focus and the interdisciplinary nature of his scientific interests.

Truby’s PhD advisor, Jennifer Lewis, helped him through. “Jennifer has become such a role model. Looking back, all my lab mates from those years are still among the most talented people I know. She had a way of bringing us together, with all our different backgrounds, to build a research team that was able to work on a variety of problems at the intersections of many fields,” Truby says. Being offered a Schmidt Science Fellowship, however, was “essential”, offering him similarly inspiring mentorship but on a systemic scale – and with funding. “The Schmidt Science Fellowship completely changed my reality,” he says. “It gave me a sense of agency to run straight into working in robotics as a materials engineer.”

Truby says he would love to see a research ecosystem that funds PhD students and postdoctoral researchers directly – a partial inversion of the current funding landscape that allows researchers at the earliest career stage to more directly take part in the formulation of interdisciplinary research projects aimed at solving major challenges. “The Schmidt Science Fellowship empowered me with the freedom to take a line of interdisciplinary enquiry in my research. I can only imagine the impact others could have and how quickly we could advance interdisciplinary science if they were given that same support and independence,” he says.

Inevitably, it will be Truby’s students who are designing solutions for tomorrow’s world. The current PhD students and postdoctoral scholars in his lab are already investigating how soft robotic materials can be deployed in areas such as sustainability and healthcare settings. It is all interdisciplinary, intellectual curiosity set loose.

Times Higher Education&nbsp;has&nbsp;partnered with Schmidt Science Fellows to develop a&nbsp;new ranking measuring universities’ contribution to&nbsp;interdisciplinary science.&nbsp;Find out how to participate.

Find out more about Schmidt Science Fellows.

The field of soft robotics draws on insights from biology and the abilities of living organisms to advance robot design. It offers a case study of why supporting interdisciplinary research among early career scientists drives innovation and yields radical scientific discoveries

Empowering early-career researchers to take intellectual curiosity to grand challenges

Guidance to help academics develop interdisciplinary skills and ways of working that go beyond subject silos to address real world challenges

Interdisciplinarity

Advice for bringing together expertise and skills from multiple academic disciplines to seek innovative solutions, examples of interdisciplinary collaboration done well and guidance on how to put inter- and transdisciplinarity into practice in research, teaching, leadership and impact.

Latest resources

Advice for bringing together multiple academic disciplines into one project or approach, examples of interdisciplinary collaboration done well and how to put interdisciplinarity into practice in research, teaching, leadership and impact

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