Challenges Of Interdisciplinary Research Research Articles

Unveiling emerging interdisciplinary research challenges in the highly threatened sclerophyllous forests of central Chile

BackgroundThe potential ecosystem collapse of forests in Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs) by unprecedented droughts is worrisome due to the impacts on its exceptional biodiversity and human well-being. However, research integrating the impacts of global change drivers, forest resilience and the challenges facing human-nature relationships is still scarce.Methods and resultsUsing the central Chile megadrought and recently massive forest browning event as a model scenario, we identified, through a scientific literature review and an interdisciplinary scientific workshop, the research priorities and questions to address for MTEs in a context of global change. Our results highlighted knowledge gaps that need to be covered, particularly in social and environmental sciences, with an emphasis on soil science. Research priorities must focus on (1) the understanding of interactive effects of global and local anthropogenic drivers on MTEs and (2) the evaluation of the potential impacts of MTEs collapse on human well-being and ecosystem functioning.ConclusionsWe highlight the need for a collaborative approach involving scientists, landowners, managers/administrators, and policymakers to apply adaptive forest management against the current socio-environmental challenges under a global change context.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a current challenge of interdisciplinary research

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a current challenge of interdisciplinary research

Enhancing Democratic Processes through Interdisciplinary Research

In an era where democracy faces multifaceted challenges ranging from political polarization to misinformation, the need for robust and adaptive democratic processes is more critical than ever. Enhancing these processes necessitates the integration of diverse academic disciplines to address complex societal issues comprehensively. Interdisciplinary research offers a promising pathway to achieve this goal by blending insights from various fields, fostering innovation, and producing holistic solutions that are more effective and inclusive. Enhancing democratic processes is a complex challenge that requires comprehensive, innovative, and inclusive solutions. Interdisciplinary research, by integrating diverse perspectives and expertise, offers a promising pathway to achieve this goal. By fostering holistic problem-solving, enhancing policy formulation, and promoting innovation, interdisciplinary approaches can significantly contribute to the robustness and adaptability of democratic systems. Overcoming the challenges of interdisciplinary research requires a concerted effort from academic institutions, funding bodies, policymakers, and the public. Together, we can build more resilient and responsive democratic processes that better serve the needs of our diverse and evolving societies.

‘They think we are delaying their outputs’. The challenges of interdisciplinary research: understanding power dynamics between social and biophysical scientists in international crop breeding teams

Public sector crop improvement for development programmes aims to produce varieties tailored to the needs of smallholder farmers and their environments. Understanding how social heterogeneity, including gender, drives trait preferences is essential to ensure that crop improvement objectives meet farmers’ and stakeholder demands. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, integrating social science knowledge with crop breeding. Although the necessity of interdisciplinary research is recognised and promoted, it is impeded by a multitude of challenges including ontological and epistemological differences, institutional and global hierarchies, disciplinary power relations and struggles for scientific authority. The Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D) sector is marked by entrenched power differentials, including dominance of the biophysical sciences, a historical emphasis on technical solutions which ignores social contexts, and the underrepresentation of women scientists and farmers themselves. Nevertheless, there is limited theoretically informed analysis of power dynamics within AR4D settings. Drawing on qualitative, ethnographic observations of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Crop Improvement (ILCI), this article seeks to understand how power affects interdisciplinary research processes. Critical ethnography and power theory is used to analyse power within international crop breeding collaborations and the implications for inclusive knowledge production and research impact. The Powercube is used to examine how visible, hidden and invisible forms of power manifest within local, national, and international relationships across closed, invited and claimed spaces. Our findings suggest that these intersecting power dimensions, which include disciplinary, gendered, institutional and global hierarchies, constrain the contributions that individual researchers can make – particularly social scientists – thereby hindering disciplinary integration. The ILCI case study reveals the complex multi-dimensional dynamics that emerge within agricultural research teams and highlights structural limitations constraining efforts to build socially inclusive and gender-responsive crop improvement programmes. The article contributes to a small but growing literature studying the social construction of agricultural science, and provides insights that can enable interdisciplinary research strategies to more effectively meet the needs of farmers and other stakeholders.

Doing Interdisciplinary Environmental Change Research Solo

Interdisciplinary research on people, plants, and environmental change (IRPPE) typically requires collaboration among experts who each bring distinct knowledge and skills to bear on the questions at hand. The benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research in principle are thus confounded by the dynamics of multidisciplinary collaboration in practice. However, broadly trained researchers can do IRPPE with little or no need of collaborators. For them, collaborative challenges may be negligible, but others arise. This paper reflects on experiences doing (mostly) solo research on peoples’ use of trees and their impacts on forests in the Caribbean and Philippines. Multidisciplinary collaborations are often plagued with problems of communication, theoretical disagreement, and methodological incompatibility because the habits and conceits of a rigorous disciplinary education are difficult to undo. These are problems that novel concepts, theory, and analytical frameworks promise but often fail to resolve. By contrast, going solo fosters an epistemic humility and pragmatic sensibility that encourages focused, efficient application of methods, and integration of research findings. Epistemic breadth encourages solo IRPPE researchers to apply theory sparingly and deploy clear concepts and precise analyses of the kind readily grasped by natural and social scientists and policy makers, alike.

An Interdisciplinary Approach and Advanced Techniques for Enhanced 3D-Printed Upper Limb Prosthetic Socket Design: A Literature Review

This review investigates the opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary research in upper limb prosthetic (ULP) socket design and manufacturing, which is crucial for improving the lives of individuals with limb loss. By integrating various disciplines, such as engineering, materials science, biomechanics, and health care, with emerging technologies such as 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual reality (VR), interdisciplinary collaboration can foster innovative solutions tailored to users’ diverse needs. Despite the immense potential, interdisciplinary research faces challenges in effective communication, collaboration, and evaluation. This review analyses pertinent case studies and discusses the implications of interdisciplinary research, emphasizing the importance of fostering a shared understanding, open communication, and institutional innovation. By examining technological advancements, user satisfaction, and prosthetic device usage in various interdisciplinary research examples, invaluable insights and direction for researchers and professionals seeking to contribute to this transformative field are provided. Addressing the challenges and capitalizing on the opportunities offered by interdisciplinary research can significantly improve upper limb prosthetic socket design and manufacturing, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for users worldwide.

Bibliometric Mapping of School Garden Studies: A Thematic Trends Analysis

This paper analyzes the thematic trends in school garden studies over the past few decades, using a relational bibliometric methodology on a corpus of 392 articles and review articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The paper seeks to understand how researchers have studied the concept over the last few decades in various disciplines, spanning approximately eighty Web of Science categories. The results show that there is a critical mass of scientific research studying school gardens. The analysis shows the thematic trends in discussion journals, discussion terminology, and consolidates classic papers and some novel authors and papers. The studies and their theoretical trends lead to refocusing the analysis on the effects of school gardens beyond the educational, thanks to the contribution of authors from more than fifty countries engaged in the study of these activities. This work constitutes new challenges for this line of research, raising interdisciplinary research challenges between horticultural, environmental, technological, educational, social, food, nutritional, and health sciences.

An Effective Integrated Machine Learning Framework for Identifying Severity of Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus and Their Experimental Validation.

Tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) dispersed across different countries, specifically to subtropical regions, associated with more severe symptoms. Since TYLCV was first isolated in 1931, it has been a menace to tomato industrial production worldwide over the past century. Three groups were newly isolated from TYLCV-resistant tomatoes in 2022; however, their functions are unknown. The development of machine learning (ML)-based models using characterized sequences and evaluating blind predictions is one of the major challenges in interdisciplinary research. The purpose of this study was to develop an integrated computational framework for the accurate identification of symptoms (mild or severe) based on TYLCV sequences (isolated in Korea). For the development of the framework, we first extracted 11 different feature encodings and hybrid features from the training data and then explored 8 different classifiers and developed their respective prediction models by using randomized 10-fold cross-validation. Subsequently, we carried out a systematic evaluation of these 96 developed models and selected the top 90 models, whose predicted class labels were combined and considered as reduced features. On the basis of these features, a multilayer perceptron was applied and developed the final prediction model (IML-TYLCVs). We conducted blind prediction on 3 groups using IML-TYLCVs, and the results indicated that 2 groups were severe and 1 group was mild. Furthermore, we confirmed the prediction with virus-challenging experiments of tomato plant phenotypes using infectious clones from 3 groups. Plant virologists and plant breeding professionals can access the user-friendly online IML-TYLCVs web server at https://balalab-skku.org/IML-TYLCVs, which can guide them in developing new protection strategies for newly emerging viruses.

Human–water research: discussion of “Guiding principles for hydrologists conducting interdisciplinary research and fieldwork with participants”

ABSTRACT Rangecroft et al. provide an important and interesting paper on the challenges of interdisciplinary research and fieldwork with participants in water resource management. The paper shows the challenges of interaction between their research areas and demonstrates the importance of how a researcher interacts with their selected study sites. My key points reflect the use of different methodologies within social and natural sciences and across them as well as the main challenge of who has the power to influence the research directions. Research is not value-free and is highly influenced by one’s own training and knowledge, which needs to be addressed in the research activities. Finally, an option might be to move beyond interdisciplinary constraints and to work within a stronger transdisciplinary framework. Water research very much needs to interact with non-academic people to understand the challenges and possible solutions.

What is interdisciplinarity, and how can we apply it to research and practice?

Abstract The concept of interdisciplinarity is an integral part of contemporary academia. Successful academic careers or innovative study programs: Interdisciplinarity is often claimed, expected, or required. Public health scientists also claim to facilitate health-related interdisciplinary research under the umbrella of public health and to apply findings from interdisciplinary research in practice. These aspects already point to one of many problems in using the term interdisciplinarity: When using the term, it is not always evident whether it is a merely descriptive term or whether normative expectations are also associated with it. We consider that successful interdisciplinary research is enabled by a shared understanding of what is meant by interdisciplinarity in concrete research projects. This urgency is re-emphasised by the participation of new disciplines in digital public health. Through this presentation, we would like to give participants a brief theoretical overview of the concept of interdisciplinarity and related concepts such as transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity. In this way, all workshop participants will have a shared understanding that will serve as a basis for further work in groups during the workshop. After the terminological distinctions, we will turn to the practical challenges of interdisciplinary research, which arise beyond the clarification of terms. We will outline these challenges in fundamental terms and then provide some best practice examples on how interdisciplinarity in scientific competence can be promoted among individual scientists and in research groups. In the best case, the workshop participants will draw inspiration for the subsequent group work from the best practice examples to generate new motivation for interdisciplinary work in this way. A concise summary will conclude this compact-informative presentation. Merle Freye will host the tables on law and ethics during the world coffee.

Building an interdisciplinary program of cardiovascular research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology– the ETHeart story

In this backstory, researchers from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) who initiated an interdisciplinary program to generate innovative solutions for different cardiovascular diseases, such as myocardial infarction, valvular replacement, and movement-based rehabilitation therapy, discuss the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research.

Interdisciplinary Walks: Investigating the benefits of walking for research

The Interdisciplinary Walks project was funded by the Leicester Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) between May and July 2022. It set out to encourage staff members to think outside their own disciplinary silos whilst getting familiar with University of Leicester surroundings, from the main and north campus to the School of Business at Brookfield, and the Space Park. Consultations with 29 members of staff asking about their interdisciplinary research and favourite walks were conducted via Zoom and recorded for use on the WordPress site <www.leicias.le.ac.uk>. Intended outputs from the Interdisciplinary Walks project included an A5 map booklet (with a print run of c.500 copies) drawn by illustrator Amy McKay, web content including edited audio recordings of consultations and accompanying transcripts, and six visualisations of the audio clips created by visual storytelling agency Nifty Fox Creative. This working paper provides an overview of the project as it progressed, with the final sections reflecting upon the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research and the value of walking and thinking as viewed by academic researchers. The consultations recognised the importance of access to parks and green spaces, and identified four key walking behaviours: walking alone, together, to disconnect, and to focus. The project concludes that by understanding individual preferences in how we walk, researchers can harness the potential of walking as a tool to improve mind, body, and research.

Multiple Streams Framework as Scientific Research Program and Tool for the Analysis of Public Policy Issues

Abstract The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) is currently one of the most widely used frameworks in policy process research. It explains how policy agenda develops in the policy process with emphasis on policy adoption. This article examines MSF from the perspective of the history of science and Lakatos’ methodology of scientific research programs. In this respect, we consider MSF a “semi-strong theory” that uses a form of subsumption under theory for scientific explanation. This differs from a “strong” explanatory theory (e.g., physics), which uses explanations in the form of subsumption under scientific law. From the point of view of Lakatos’ methodology, MSF represents a scientific research program. The basic element is a hard core given mainly by the MSF hypothesis for the framework as a whole and MSF assumptions and key structural elements. Around the hard core there is a protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses. They correspond to hypotheses related to the framework’s key elements and to the hypothesis for the framework as a whole. MSF has negative heuristics (prohibition of the use of the modus tollens rule) and positive heuristics, which are represented by a set of theoretically and empirically progressive theories that further develop the MSF research program. An analysis of studies on MSF reveals that single hypotheses are only exceptionally tested using “hard” data and quantitative methods. Qualitative analysis (case studies) predominates, which contributes to the development of MSF theory. Therefore, we can consider a progressive shift in theory. In this respect, MSF can be considered a successful research program. However, in terms of the methodology of scientific research programs, MSF has a number of other opportunities to develop hypothesis testing further and use various modelling methods with data sets. Thus, MSF represents an interesting scientific research program, which needs to be further developed and specified in the spirit of the methodology of scientific research programs, It is a challenge for interdisciplinary research in the field of social sciences.

Response-able pedagogy: teaching through Shakespeare in a Higher Education (HE) transnational partnership

ABSTRACT What started as an idea of two subject disciplines collaborating to support students practicing their English outside the classroom, a theatrical production of Henry V by Shakespeare, became a case study from which to draw pedagogical principles on teaching and learning within a Higher Education Sino-British Transnational Educational (TNE) Partnership. Research into TNE activities focuses mainly on issues such as strategy, quality assurance and competitive advantage, and there is less on the lived experiences of students and lecturers, pedagogical clashes that occur within TNE partnerships and on the methodological discussions that should take place in interdisciplinary research. Through our story of facilitating a production of Henry V, we interrogate pedagogical issues we found in teaching, methodological challenges in interdisciplinary research and ultimately put forward a ‘response-able pedagogy’ that enables different voices to be heard and different knowledges to be recognised in coexistence.

Оценка влияния местного бюджета на человеческий капитал территории: исторические и современные аспекты

Considering the need for sustainable human capital development in Russia, as well as interdisciplinary research challenges, the present study examines historical and contemporary aspects of the impact of the budget on regional human capital. For this purpose, budgetary mechanisms implemented in the period from 1969 to 2020 were retrospectively analysed. Based on archival materials and data from statistical collections of the Soviet period, the dynamics and structure of budget revenues and expenditures in the 1970s were compared with those in the period from 2000 to 2017. A quantitative assessment was performed to test a hypothesis about a relationship between the volume of social budget expenditures and increase in the return on human capital in the form of tax revenues to the budget. The study employed methods of comparative, structural, correlation and econometric analysis and statistical grouping. Constructed econometric models demonstrated the nature and degree of influence of various social expenditures on the resulting indicator of human capital development. Then, comparative analysis was conducted to interpret the econometric modelling results and data on the state of local budgets in the Soviet and post-Soviet period. Taking into account the established relationship between social expenditures and the indicator of human capital development, public authorities can most efficiently allocate budget funds, ensuring the maximum socio-economic effect from their investment. The research findings can be used for creating socio-economic development strategies of particular regions, as well as for comparing their social development in the historical and geographical context. In this regard, future studies can systematically assess the impact of local budgets of the largest Russian regions on the resulting indicators of human capital.

Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research

The prevalence of multi-author research papers in evidence today is a reflection not only of the fact that most scientists today work in teams, but also of the emergence of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. While it is possible to describe what the terms multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary mean, it is not possible to strictly maintain the distinction between them in actual practice. In fact, the terms are often used interchangeably. Multidisciplinary research is research involving more than one discipline, where researchers from each discipline make separate contributions towards the research objective, which cannot be achieved within a single discipline. On the other hand, interdisciplinary research involves researchers from different disciplines attempting to integrate concepts and methods from their disciplines to arrive at new insights. It is clear that any research involving researchers from different disciplines will lie somewhere on the continuum between ‘pure’ multidisciplinary research and ‘true’ interdisciplinary research. The greater the communication and interaction between researchers coming from different disciplines, the more the research effort will shift towards interdisciplinarity. While multidisciplinary research can help in solving complex problems, it is interdisciplinary research that can lead to creative expansion of the frontiers of science. Interdisciplinary research can lead to the development of new areas of scientific investigations, which with time take on the characteristics of a single discipline, having its own set of fundamental concepts and knowledge structure. Thus, if one considers Physics, Chemistry and Biology as the basic and fundamental disciplines of science, then Biochemistry and Nanomaterials stand as examples of long established and more recently established disciplines respectively, arising from interdisciplinary efforts. Scientists who enjoy the challenge of interdisciplinary research must of necessity, learn as much as possible of the disciplines they interact with outside their own specialization, and must (in the sense described by the Nobel prize winning biochemist, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi) be more Dionysian than Apollonian in spirit.

Reflections on the Promise and Challenge of Interdisciplinary Research on Gender and Religion

Reflections on the Promise and Challenge of Interdisciplinary Research on Gender and Religion

Designing trials of Universal Basic Income for health impact: identifying interdisciplinary questions to address.

A large body of evidence indicates the importance of upstream determinants to health. Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been suggested as an upstream intervention capable of promoting health by affecting material, biopsychosocial and behavioural determinants. Calls are emerging across the political spectrum to introduce an emergency UBI to address socioeconomic insecurity. However, although existing studies indicate effects on health through cash transfers, UBI schemes have not previously been designed specifically to promote health. In this article, we scope the existing literature to set out a set of interdisciplinary research challenges to address in designing a trial of the effectiveness of UBI as a population health measure. We present a theoretical model of impact that identifies three pathways to health impact, before identifying open questions related to regularity, size of payment, needs-based supplements, personality and behaviour, conditionality and duration. These results set, for the first time, a set of research activities required in order to maximize health impact in UBI programmes.

Collaborative Practices in Crisis Science: Interdisciplinary Research Challenges and the Syrian War

Collaborative Practices in Crisis Science: Interdisciplinary Research Challenges and the Syrian War

The Scarecrow as Part of Polish Rural Cultural Landscapes

Diverse historical, cultural landscapes can be found in many parts of the world, and also in rural areas. They are a challenge for interdisciplinary research. One of the gradually disappearing components of rural cultural landscapes in Poland is the scarecrow. The objective of this paper was to analyse the role of the scarecrow in the Polish rural cultural landscape today. The field research was aimed at determining whether the scarecrow can be seen in Polish rural areas, and if yes, what the circumstances and its forms are. A site visit yielded copious photographic records of rural areas. The investigated area was selected following a literature analysis and analysis of environmental and economic conditions on the regional level in Poland. The visit demonstrated that although scarecrows are part of the cultural landscape of the Polish countryside, they are slightly more modest in their appearance than in the past. Scarecrows are placed in small, family-owned agricultural holdings that have time to uphold local traditions.