Challenge-led interdisciplinary research in practice: Program design, early career research, and a dialogic approach to building unlikely collaborations.
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| Title: | Challenge-led interdisciplinary research in practice: Program design, early career research, and a dialogic approach to building unlikely collaborations. |
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| Authors: | Gibson, Chris1 cgibson@uow.edu.au, Stutchbury, Tamantha2, Ikutegbe, Victoria2, Michielin, Nicole2 |
| Source: | Research Evaluation. Jan2019, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p51-62. 12p. 2 Charts, 4 Graphs. |
| Subjects: | Interdisciplinary research, Program design (Education), Dialogism (Literary analysis), Leadership, Epistemics |
| Abstract: | Challenge-led interdisciplinary research is a relatively new way of bringing together disciplinary expertise in response to complex societal and environmental problems. Common difficulties include how to define 'interdisciplinary research'; how to improve the participation and flourishing of early-career researchers; and how to manage projects with disparate teams of researchers while deepening external collaborations. This article reports from a major initiative of this type. It interrogates qualitative data generated from program evaluation among participating researchers, identifying insights on beneficial structural (program design) and 'soft' infrastructure (human capital) variables, as well as on-going barriers and tensions. Notwithstanding the difficulties of communicating and collaborating across epistemic domains, the program in question exceeded expectations in building interdisciplinary research and early research careers—though not necessarily in ways initially imagined. Staggered funding pools meant it was acceptable in early phases for low-cost projects to 'fail safely', while strict funding guidelines on distal interdisciplinarity compelled unlikely and novel researcher combinations and projects. Moreover, such program design features 'granted permission' to early-career researchers to approach more senior, cross-faculty researchers as potential collaborators, hence building leadership capacity. Human capital variables included a dialogic approach to project development ('curating' projects as they evolve), inclusive program leadership, and promotion of the benefits of a collaborative rather than competitive research culture. Distal interdisciplinarity not only nourishes novel and unlikely research projects that respond to complex problems; with good program design and meaningful relationships it can, we argue, also build research careers differently from an early phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Research Evaluation is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Engineering Source |
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| Header | DbId: egs DbLabel: Engineering Source An: 134050279 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Challenge-led interdisciplinary research in practice: Program design, early career research, and a dialogic approach to building unlikely collaborations. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Gibson%2C+Chris%22">Gibson, Chris</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo><i> cgibson@uow.edu.au</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Stutchbury%2C+Tamantha%22">Stutchbury, Tamantha</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Ikutegbe%2C+Victoria%22">Ikutegbe, Victoria</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Michielin%2C+Nicole%22">Michielin, Nicole</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo> – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Research+Evaluation%22">Research Evaluation</searchLink>. Jan2019, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p51-62. 12p. 2 Charts, 4 Graphs. – Name: Subject Label: Subjects Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Interdisciplinary+research%22">Interdisciplinary research</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Program+design+%28Education%29%22">Program design (Education)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Dialogism+%28Literary+analysis%29%22">Dialogism (Literary analysis)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Leadership%22">Leadership</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Epistemics%22">Epistemics</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Challenge-led interdisciplinary research is a relatively new way of bringing together disciplinary expertise in response to complex societal and environmental problems. Common difficulties include how to define 'interdisciplinary research'; how to improve the participation and flourishing of early-career researchers; and how to manage projects with disparate teams of researchers while deepening external collaborations. This article reports from a major initiative of this type. It interrogates qualitative data generated from program evaluation among participating researchers, identifying insights on beneficial structural (program design) and 'soft' infrastructure (human capital) variables, as well as on-going barriers and tensions. Notwithstanding the difficulties of communicating and collaborating across epistemic domains, the program in question exceeded expectations in building interdisciplinary research and early research careers—though not necessarily in ways initially imagined. Staggered funding pools meant it was acceptable in early phases for low-cost projects to 'fail safely', while strict funding guidelines on distal interdisciplinarity compelled unlikely and novel researcher combinations and projects. Moreover, such program design features 'granted permission' to early-career researchers to approach more senior, cross-faculty researchers as potential collaborators, hence building leadership capacity. Human capital variables included a dialogic approach to project development ('curating' projects as they evolve), inclusive program leadership, and promotion of the benefits of a collaborative rather than competitive research culture. Distal interdisciplinarity not only nourishes novel and unlikely research projects that respond to complex problems; with good program design and meaningful relationships it can, we argue, also build research careers differently from an early phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Research Evaluation is the property of Oxford University Press / USA and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1093/reseval/rvy039 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 12 StartPage: 51 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Interdisciplinary research Type: general – SubjectFull: Program design (Education) Type: general – SubjectFull: Dialogism (Literary analysis) Type: general – SubjectFull: Leadership Type: general – SubjectFull: Epistemics Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Challenge-led interdisciplinary research in practice: Program design, early career research, and a dialogic approach to building unlikely collaborations. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Gibson, Chris – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Stutchbury, Tamantha – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Ikutegbe, Victoria – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Michielin, Nicole IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Text: Jan2019 Type: published Y: 2019 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 09582029 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 28 – Type: issue Value: 1 Titles: – TitleFull: Research Evaluation Type: main |
| ResultId | 1 |
