Overcoming barriers to cross-disciplinary research

Abstract

Interdisciplinary research can create many scientific opportunities but may also face challenges and barriers. X-Net’s main objective is helping interdisciplinary scientists to overcome those barriers providing guidance and resources, particularly to early career researchers. We organised an online workshop “Overcoming barriers to cross-disciplinary research” (6th July, 2022) with the purpose of identifying the main obstacles of interdisciplinary research (IDR) in the UK.

The workshop incorporated a pre-workshop anonymous survey that allowed participants to identify and share some of their personal experiences of cross-disciplinary research. The workshop then used these experiences to find themes or challenges in common. It also allowed participants to consider, through action learning, what specific cross-disciplinary barrier(s) they sought advice on. The survey questionnaire was designed to focus on the opinions of individual scientists regarding the barriers or incentives for interdisciplinary research and to receive diverse perspectives. Researchers with early or ongoing experience in interdisciplinarity entering biomedical sciences from STEM were approached for their opinions.