Date: 7th March 2011
Place: Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
There has never been a time when research was more important to policy. Global challenges of climate change, biodiversity, global health and food, water and energy security demand genuinely interdisciplinary scientific research. Funders and policymakers are increasingly recognising the importance of research that blends different – perhaps contrasting – disciplines and engages with wider society. But there is emerging evidence of institutional barriers acting against interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research.
Open questions and unresolved challenges remain. How should resources be balanced between disciplinary and interdisciplinary research? How should interdisciplinary research be measured, evaluated and funded? How can ‘excellence’ be reconciled with policy ‘robustness'? Do established disciplines present institutional obstacles to interdisciplinary research?
Drawing on current innovative research, this workshop will examine some of these challenges and questions and interrogate their implications.
Programme
- Andrew Barry (Oxford) on forms of interdisciplinarity. Slides.
- Catherine Lyall (Edinburgh) on barriers to interdisciplinary research. Slides.
- Ismael Rafols (Sussex) on the assessment of interdisciplinary research. Slides.
- Femke Merkx (Rathenau, NL) on the social impact of research. Slides.
- Rémi Barré (CNAM, Paris) on socially robust S&T indicators. Slides.
- David Croson (NSF) on science for science policy. Slides.
- Chaired by James Wilsdon & Jack Stilgoe (Royal Society), and Andy Stirling (Sussex)
Workshop materials
- The logics of interdisciplinarity , Barry et al. (2008)
- Guide to interdisciplinary strategies, Lyall
- How rankings suppress interdisciplinarity , Rafols et al. (2011)
- Evaluating Research in Context at the Rathenau Institute
- Towards socially robust indicators, Barré (2010)
- The Scientific Century, The Royal Society (2010)
