Interdisciplinary Research
Industrialisation, digitalisation, and globalisation have all brought new challenges for society requiring cooperation of various types. Cooperation between scientists from different disciplines plays an important role in addressing such complex issues such as climate change or the circular economy. The Utrecht Young Academy therefore hosts a platform for interdisciplinary research. This platform aims to promote the exchange of ideas from researchers from different disciplines, to stimulate the growth of interdisciplinary knowledge, and to investigate its benefits and limits in addressing various academic and societal issues.
The platform for interdisciplinary research uses two working approaches:
- Holding annual meetings in which member of the Utrecht Young Academy bring one external guest (a colleague) to brainstorm on original ideas to start new interdisciplinary projects. The outcome of such meetings have been joint research proposals submitted for external funding;
- Inviting academics to share their experiences with interdisciplinary research and to discuss the benefits, limits, tips and tricks of engaging in research merging several disciplines.
Do you want to share your experience with interdisciplinary research? Please, contact Niko Wanders (n.wanders@uu.nl).
Blogs
Interdisciplinarity: a recipe for curiosity In this blog, dr. Karin Jongsma discusses how exploring interdisciplinary research might require learning new ‘recipes’.
When a climate physicist met an archaeologist… In this blog, dr. Erik van Sebille discusses how he published in a journal on Archaeological Science with a physics degree.
Keep your mind (and less your mouth ;-)) open What insights can you gain from opening your minds to others? In this blog, Dr. Mira Scholten discusses what you can learn from interdisciplinary research by listening more.
Ilona Domen and dr. Jarno Hoekman on multidisciplinarity as a research object In this interview, Ilona and Jarno elaborate on their project in which they engage with multidisciplinarity from a research perspective.
Four problems about interdisciplinary collaborations we better learn to love Dr. Scott Douglas reflects on four problems about interdisciplinary collaborations.
Interdisciplinarity and Darwin’s Law - an analogy In this blog, dr. Amir Raoof discusses interdisciplinarity in the context of selection and mutation in species survival.
How interdisciplinary are you? From hardcore to soft interdisciplinary research Is there a spectrum ranging from hardcore to soft interdisciplinary research? Dr. Özge Bilgili discusses the value of interdisciplinary research based on her own experiences.
Interdisciplinary research requires a different review process In this blog, dr. Madelijn Strick advocates that the reviewing system has to change if we want to properly assess the value of interdisciplinary research.
Should research balance curiosity with societal impact? Dr. Yvonne Vercoulen advocates for the importance of curiosity-driven research to keep our science community free to ask and tackle different types of questions.
The PhD dissertation that (almost) never was: how multidisciplinary research rescued my PhD Luis Mejía, PhD candidate at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, discusses how interdisciplinarity added a dimension to his PhD dissertation.
Projects
On the promises and pitfalls of scientific interdisciplinarity How does interdisciplinary collaboration work in practice? In this project we aim to understand interdisciplinary science at a fundamental level.
Podcast: Travelling Concepts on Air Travelling Concepts on Air is a podcast series created by UYA members Tessa Diphoorn and Brianne McGonigle Leyh that explores the promise and ideal of interdisciplinarity.
‘We truly learned to engage with each other’s perspectives’ Dr Jojanneke van der Toorn (social psychology) and Dr Martine Veldhuizen (cultural history) share their experiences with their interdisciplinary research project Privacy and Inclusion.
