Editorial

Abstract

This journal, as indoor air science is, is truly multi-disciplinary (medicine, engineering, chemistry, microbiology, sociology…)! However, in reality there are very few truly multi-disciplinary scientific studies in our field! By far, most articles we see, even in this journal, report results from studies conducted within one specific science! The main problem is, of course, funding. Even if ‘multi-disciplinarity’ is often discussed in calls for research funding, it is really hard to get such projects funded! Still, applications for new projects are mainly sent to and evaluated by persons working within a very specific science. In reality there are few, if any (?) multidisciplinary research councils! For most research councils multi-disciplinarity is often defined as co-operation between different sciences, within a specific science, such as medicine or engineering, but not co-operation between medicine and engineering! So, applications that involve, for example, both medicine and engineering often fall between the chairs! A rather typical example is the study entitled ‘Damp Buildings and Health’ in Sweden. I'm using this as an example because I know the history by heart. We started 10 years ago with an application to medical and engineering research councils in Sweden. For 5 years we got nothing. ‘Too much medicine, too little engineering’ or ‘Too much engineering, too little medicine’ were the comments we got! After 5 years we changed the strategy and instead of seeking a large multi-disciplinary grant we divided it into a number of smaller applications within specific disciplines, and it worked! Today this project is judged as ‘excellent’ in an external evaluation of research conduced in this field in Sweden. It is excellent mainly because it is so broad, so multi-disciplinary You can read the report ‘Evaluation of the Healthy Building: Key Action – Stage 2, 2001–2004’ at http://www.FORMAS.se/ So far history! But now, Beijing and the main conference within our field - Indoor Air 2005, in Beijing! I assume that I will meet most of You in China in September! This conference is the place to learn about where we stand, and where to go scientifically. The large majority of scientists in our field will be there. You will get the latest scientific news, will meet and discuss with scientists from engineering, microbiology, chemistry, medicine, architecture, aerosol physics, sociology, and psychology.