Landscape Review of Interdisciplinary Research in the UK
Over the last decade, the desire to address complex societal problems, achieve impact, and create value from working across disciplines has led to an increased emphasis on interdisciplinary research (IDR) among researchers, funders, and higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK.
Simultaneously, there has been concern over the presence (or perception) of barriers against IDR in the UK’s research system. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the incentives and barriers affecting IDR in the UK.
To that end, we engaged three defined stakeholder populations – researchers, funders and strategic leaders at HEIs – across UK regions, disciplines, institution types, and career stages (where applicable) using three methodologies: online surveys, workshops, and in-depth interviews.
The combined analysis of our findings forms the basis of this report.
