Interdisciplinarity

By sara.custer, 8 February, 2024

Solving the world’s complex problems will be so much harder if higher education is confined to disciplinary silos. Universities must encourage work across departments to develop creative and innovative answers to global challenges.

By ashton.wenborn, 30 April, 2025

Fostering innovation through interdisciplinary research

The University of Bath runs several initiatives to promote cross-disciplinary collaboration
Universities can build their interdisciplinary research capacity through deliberate strategy and support for academics whose intellectual curiosity extends beyond their domain expertise in search of collaboration
By ashton.wenborn, 22 April, 2025

Incentivising interdisciplinary research: lessons from Singapore

Bin Liu, deputy president of research and technology, National University of Singapore
With top-tier cross-disciplinary research talent in leadership positions, the National University of Singapore is creating an ecosystem that rewards impactful scientific collaborations, harnessing AI’s power to accelerate research and innovation
By kiera.obrien, 18 March, 2025

A comprehensive model for interdisciplinary teaching

A group of people listen to a lanyard-wearing speaker
Interdisciplinarity is crucial for preparing students for a complicated world. Adopting a dual focus on both faculty development and student engagement could be the way forward
Reading time
5minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 27 February, 2025

Each discipline has a part to play

Two pieces of a puxxle being pushed together
A guide to conducting preliminary research, setting goals and defining each member’s level of input to an interdisciplinary research project
Reading time
5minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 27 February, 2025

Navigating uncertainty with interdisciplinary teaching

Multiracial group sitting around housing plans
The siloed approach to education – where students in technical, business, humanities and arts disciplines learn separately – is no longer adequate, writes Lisa McNair
Reading time
4minutes
By kiera.obrien, 26 February, 2025

Give students the skills to communicate across disciplines

Students work together in an outdoor setting
In sustainability education, inter- and transdisciplinary teaching alone is not enough – students need to develop the skills to learn in a cross-disciplinary way. Co-creation could be the answer.
Reading time
5minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 26 February, 2025

Lessons from an interdisciplinary community engagement course for engineers

University teacher and students
STEM curricula in the US don’t often expose students to perspectives on culture, history and power nor equip them with effective community engagement skills. Here, an instructor and students share lessons from designing and teaching an interdisciplinary course that sought to address that gap
Reading time
4minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 19 February, 2025

Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks?

Students working on an interdisciplinary project
Interdisciplinarity is an ambitious and rewarding research process, but how realistic can we be in a 10-week module? Here is how to frame the task, structure the process and balance workloads
Reading time
4minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 17 February, 2025

How can we assess interdisciplinarity?

People sat around a table slotting cogs together
Effectively assessing interdisciplinarity involves encouraging students to ask the right questions and critically evaluating the quality of the knowledge created, explains Simon Scott
Reading time
5minutes
By Eliza.Compton, 10 February, 2025

What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teaching

Young woman in front of brain illustration, arts and sciences
Why is it important to integrate knowledge and methodologies across disciplines? Catherine Amelink has recommendations to encourage the student engagement needed to address complex, weighty problems
Reading time
4minutes
By Laura.Duckett, 10 September, 2024

Developing interdisciplinary courses for tomorrow’s scholars

Female lab technicians carrying out experiments
Many universities are developing new interdisciplinary degree programmes to prepare students for working across sectors on complex issues. But how can we engage faculty in this whole-institution approach?
Reading time
5minutes
By ashton.wenborn, 30 July, 2024

Joint efforts propel transformative scientific discoveries

Caitlin Maikawa, Senior Schmidt Science Fellow and assistant professor at the University of Toronto
It takes many scientific perspectives to deliver new technologies that could revolutionise how we treat diabetes and monitor disease. At the University of Toronto’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering, research teams are applying their expertise to real-life clinical problems in search of innovations in bioengineering
By Eliza.Compton, 30 July, 2024

A framework to develop communities of practice

Community of practice concept illustration
Supporting communities of practice across an organisation can provide extraordinary benefits. Drawn from the author’s experience, these tips aim to build connection and engagement through a formalised framework and senior leader sponsorship
Reading time
4minutes
By ashton.wenborn, 10 July, 2024

Targeted strategies for interdisciplinary innovation

Image caption: Researchers in the Device Foundry, one of three facilities comprising the Centre for Research and Applications in Fluidic Technologies (CRAFT), an ISI at the University of Toronto (Image credit: Dahlia Katz)
The University of Toronto’s Institutional Strategic Initiatives offer a compelling case study in what large, complex institutions can do to break down disciplinary silos and drive innovation
By Sreethu.Sajeev, 27 March, 2024

Shooting for the Moon with interdisciplinary approaches to lunar development

Schmidt Science Fellows
Large-scale projects, such as creating a sustained presence on the Moon, are complex, interdisciplinary endeavours that test researchers to the limit. But with support from the research community – united by common purpose and values – lunar development efforts can take a giant leap towards establishing an outpost on the Moon
By ashton.wenborn, 6 March, 2024

Where the boldest research ideas find a home

CIFAR-Azrieli Global Scholars and Schmidt Science Fellows explore opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration
Getting multidisciplinary projects off the ground can be a heavy lift for even the most motivated scientists, but forward-thinking organisations like CIFAR are willing to lend a hand, convening international research groups and offering the much-needed support to develop their ideas
By ashton.wenborn, 8 February, 2024

Inside the data-driven search for migraine relief

Sandya Subramanian, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University
At the frontiers of computational research and medical hardware, interdisciplinary approaches offer hope to chronic migraine patients through ground-breaking physiological sensors and analytical tools that analyse the autonomic nervous system for clues about the debilitating condition
Vertical
Interdisciplinarity
Sponsor
Schmidt Science Fellows
Sponsored
Yes
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