Solutions and Strategies

Keep your eyes wide: the push for interdisciplinarity and its impact on researcher identity

This session covered pragmatic approaches to interdisciplinary research including how to accommodate the diversity of disciplinary offerings within schools. It also focused on questions of qualities of researchers and research culture moving forwards. This included questions about what kinds of researchers are required with an eye towards succession planning and sustainability.

This session was chaired by Deakin Distinguished Professor, Andrea Witcomb. Andrea is the Associate Dean Research and Acting Dean for the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University.

Andrea provided a comprehensive slide pack which is a great resource for identifying the key policy areas which are externally altering research environments through changing research priorities, funding arrangements and pushing for more collaborative research.

Key policy areas changing research environments

Andrea outlined three key policy areas which are changing the research environment through re-framing research goals, changing funding arrangements and are externally pushing for interdisciplinary collaboration. These are the new National Science and Research Priorities, Strategic Examination of Research and Development (SERD) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) review. 

Important considerations include:

• The National Science and Research priorities emphasise problem-oriented research opening up spaces for HASS and STEM collaboration, and elevating Indigenous knowledges. Interdisciplinary research needs to be framed around these priorities.
• Priorities Elevating Indigenous Knowledges, Protecting and Restoring Australia’s Environment and Building a Secure and Resilient Nation are key areas which HASS can contribute. 
• The SERD paper similarly points to the National Science and Research Priorities as key problems. There is a common theme encouraging industry and community collaboration to address local problems and research priorities that are focused on end-users and the national benefit. 
• The ARC Discussion paper indicates a shift away from individual researchers and Fellowships towards collaborative, interdisciplinary teams. It privileges research leaders who are capacity builders for researchers and industry.
• These shifts emphasise interdisciplinary research as a key way to address significant problems and contribute towards the nation’s benefit. There is a need to balance interdisciplinary research with preserving disciplines, methodologies and the value of different perspectives. 
• Research leaders including ADRs increasingly are expected to capacity build for ECRs, lead teams and develop partnerships at multiple scales.

Identified strategies to foster interdisciplinarity research culture

The following are activities and strategies undertaken by ADRs to begin building interdisciplinary partnerships, open up new ways of thinking and address disciplinary tensions within schools and faculties:

• Guest lecturing into each other’s units is a key way to learn about different areas of expertise, language and values. Conversations and relationships tend to continue after class about taking more collaborative approaches to both teaching and research.

• Direct conversations and catch-ups with interdisciplinary colleagues has been an effective way to identify key allies.

• Hosting workshops about projects which brings together different disciplines to collaborate.

• Bringing in different disciplines and expertise areas to provide feedback on research proposals and grants. This builds more contextual understanding, appreciation of different language and values. It also identifies paradigms which need to be shifted and develops direct working relationships.

• Faculty research schemes that incentivise quality outputs, external research income, industry partnership which are both disciplinary and thematic. 

• Using research budget to build groups on cultural transformation, capacity building, co-authoring and team based projects.