Importance Of Interdisciplinary Research

1691 Words7 Pages

“In science, novelty emerges only with difficulty, manifested by resistance, against a background provided by expectations”. —Thomas S.Kuhn (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) I use this quote by Kuhn, (1962) as the backdrop for the relevance and need of interdisciplinary research in making science work for society through a two-way flow of knowledge between science and society. Real world problems are complex and attempts of any one discipline to address these problems result in solutions that are either insufficient or not adaptable to real world situations (IOM, 2000a). Research seeking real world solutions for real world problems need to be based on an interdisciplinary perspective, with multiple disciplines complementing and contributing …show more content…

A survey conducted in 1980, by Sigma Xi- The Scientific Research Committee among its members about the need for interdisciplinary research funding for scientific problems that do not fit within arbitrary disciplinary structures, show 75 percent of the respondents reporting they either ‘agreed’ or ‘agreed emphatically’ (IOM, 2000b). But despite this agreement, traditionally, there has been a persistent barrier to interdisciplinary research from the scientific community, even when all of the complementing disciplines fall in the realm of natural sciences. These barriers to interdisciplinary research collaborations ranges from being attitudinal barriers at the individual level to shared fear across the scientific community of research being graded second rate when it is not dealt with from within one disciplinary boundary. This is expressed by Dr.Paul Smolensky (IOM, 2000b) when he says that, ‘disciplines have been able to investigate a given subject in depth. But when research bridges disciplines and this same depth cannot be attained, the quality of the research is perceived as poor’ . While this has been the case of interdisciplinary research …show more content…

Interdisciplinary research teams are best led by people who themselves have a strong interdisciplinary background and show interest in a wide range of subjects. Respect for other disciplines, willingness to promote success of other disciplines is other essential leadership traits for successful interdisciplinary collaboration (Bruce et.al., 2004). Collaborators in an inter-disciplinary team need to be open minded, willing to learn from other disciplines and appreciate the research methods and cultures of the different disciplines (Lyall and Meagher, 2007; Lyall and Tait,

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