Barriers to building multidisciplinary research in universities can include ¡°jealous¡± academics and a lack of incentives or community, the?Times Higher Education?World Academic Summit has heard.

The summit, hosted by the University of Sydney, is on the theme of ¡°collaborating for greatness in a multidisciplinary world¡±.

While there is often talk about research that works across disciplines being the solution to many of the world¡¯s biggest challenges, a session on ¡°building multidisciplinary research from the ground up¡± heard there are plenty of barriers within universities.

Shearer West, the University of Nottingham vice-chancellor, related her university¡¯s experience of creating six ¡°beacons of excellence¡±, in global challenges including ensuring sustainable food supplies, ending slavery and developing greener transport systems.

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¡°We were able to bring on early career [researchers] into new multidisciplinary spaces, we cemented a number of our industrial partnerships and we had spin-outs and various other outcomes we might not have had otherwise,¡± Professor West told the event.

There were other ¡°concrete outcomes¡±, such as the precision imaging beacon leading on to Nottingham winning ?29 million of funding to create the UK¡¯s most powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner, ¡°on the basis of having this new capability¡±.

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¡°That was all great. What didn¡¯t work¡­there was a lack of fit [in] these beacons with the structures, governance and financial arrangements for a university,¡± Professor West continued.

Another problem was ¡°internal politics¡±, she added. ¡°There were some very jealous people in the university who felt like this investment was ¡®coming to them, not to us¡¯. And that created some really bad feeling, unfortunately.¡±

Professor West summed up on multidisciplinary research: ¡°It¡¯s risky; you have to hold your nerve for outcomes. It¡¯s worth doing; but you also have to expect and tolerate failure.¡±

Megan Kenna, founding executive director of Schmidt Science Fellows, which identifies outstanding PhD graduates and provides them with postdoctoral fellowships to mount a ¡°significant disciplinary pivot from their PhD topic¡±, told the event: ¡°We heard from a lot of our fellows there really were a lot of barriers to doing this kind of problem-focused interdisciplinary science when they went back into academia and other areas.¡±

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Schmidt Science Fellows and?THE?recently announced?they would be partnering with the aim of developing a?new ranking measuring universities¡¯ contribution to?interdisciplinary science.

One barrier the organisation¡¯s fellows highlighted was ¡°a lack of high-risk, high-reward funding for interdisciplinary science¡±, said Dr Kenna.

Another problem raised, she added, was a ¡°lack of community ¨C actually there¡¯s something really important about having other people who are approaching things in similar ways to you and reading the same journals and having conversations with them¡±.

That showed ¡°building a community of people who are trying to do science differently is a really important factor¡±, she continued.

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And Dr Kenna also said fellows found ¡°the incentive structure [in universities] really disincentivised interdisciplinarity ¨C that in fact if you were first author on papers, or publishing in the journals you were expected to publish in¡­you were more likely to be promoted¡±.

Professor West suggested the consensus on the panel was that ¡°incentives rather than shot-gun marriages is the [right] top-down tactic¡±.

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john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com