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Experiencing Interdisciplinary Research

Experiencing Interdisciplinary Research. Alan Blackwell Reader in Interdisciplinary Design University of Cambridge. a policy agenda. ‘ESRC expects to support new and exciting research which combines approaches from more than one discipline’

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Experiencing Interdisciplinary Research

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  1. Experiencing Interdisciplinary Research Alan BlackwellReader in Interdisciplinary DesignUniversity of Cambridge

  2. a policy agenda • ‘ESRC expects to support new and exciting research which combines approaches from more than one discipline’ • ESRC Impact, Innovation and Interdisciplinary Expectations (January 2009) • ‘The aim is to bring together participants from a wide range of disciplines to develop a fresh and innovative approach to research’ • EPSRC Connect call for participants (May 2009)

  3. an ‘industry’ agenda?

  4. my background • 19 years professional design experience(including design projects for London Underground, British Gas, Hitachi) • 4 degrees (engineering, philosophy, comp sci, psychology) • 30 products deployed • I learned that dramatic innovations come from multi-disciplinary teams and perspectives ... • ... but how do you do this in a University?

  5. Humanities & Social Sciences Arts & Humanities Biological Sciences Technology Clinical Physical Sciences potential: students in Cambridge

  6. Humanities & Social Sciences Arts & Humanities potential: research in Cambridge

  7. strategy “Created to encourage collaboration between technologists, and researchers in the arts, humanities and social sciences.”

  8. Academic Public sector Commercial

  9. a Crucible “house style” • Start small and move fast • Bring creative and design practices to technology • Facilitate encounters between communities • Cheerfully transgress academic borders • Engage with reflective social science • Directly address public policy

  10. Interdisciplinary Innovation – strategic creation or self-organising success?

  11. Studying interdisciplinary innovation • Interdisciplinary team (psychology, economics, anthropology, engineering) taking a phenomenologically ‘bracketed’ stance • Snowball sample to find leaders and brokers • Intensive workshops with practitioner witnesses • Assume any boundaries may constitute ‘disciplines’ • complex problems cross organisational & policy boundaries • planning for the future extends beyond current knowledge

  12. Expecting the unexpected • Not just transferring or translating knowledge • building teams with different kinds of knowledge • Disciplinary problem definitions and goals may exclude insights • Outcomes are necessarilyunanticipated • Achieving radical (not incremental) innovation • Investment in collaboration is fundamental • ‘Capital growth’ is capacity for future response • ‘Dividends’ arise serendipitously

  13. Making interdisciplinary innovation happen • Enablers • ‘Pole star’ leadership • Trust and generosity • Time to build social capital, change one’s mind • Allow, maintain and reward intellectual curiosity • Obstacles • Disciplines are the base of career structures • Even new inter-disciplines become silos • Patents are restrictive(value narratives are generative)

  14. Elements of interdisciplinary innovation • Buildecologies, creative spaces, ‘theatres of thinking’ • The interdisciplinary enterprise • A team – open, committed and curious • A leader – mentors, maintains focus,sells the brand • A sponsor (implies goals) • Outcomes (implies evaluation) • Practitioners • Offer personal histories, not qualifications • Must acknowledge imprinted ‘native styles’ • Require stereotypically feminine skills

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