Interdisciplinarity in practice - success factors and problems

Today, interdisciplinarity is said to be a way to meet complex problems. More research projects, journals and environments claim to be interdisciplinary and career opportunities in this area have increased. At the same time, it can be problematic, especially for younger researchers, to invest in interdisciplinary. They risk belonging everywhere but without their own affiliation. It is also not easy to collaborate with people with other educational backgrounds and understandings of the world. In what should the research actually meet and how can the research be rewarding and not end up in a vague mess? It is not easier for research projects to try to conduct transdisciplinary research in collaboration with societal actors, where different interests and values ​​come into the mix. This lecture presents problems but also opportunities to conduct research in these contexts.

The Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA) is an initiative at SLU starting in the fall of 2022. During an eight-month period, researchers with different academic backgrounds will have the opportunity to jointly increase their knowledge of interdisciplinary working methods. The aim of the initiative is to increase knowledge of and interest in interdisciplinary research among researchers at SLU, strengthen their ability to address research issues from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective and facilitate collaborations between different departments.

As part of the new initiative, the Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA) hosts a series of lunch webinars on interdisciplinary science and how the researchers at SLU can benefit from developing their contacts with scientists at other departments.