Understanding the optimal conditions and approaches for successful interdisciplinary research

What is the issue?

Interdisciplinary research is increasingly seen as essential for addressing complex challenges such as climate change, public health, technological innovation and social inequality. These kinds of problems do not fit neatly within a single discipline, and often require researchers from different fields, institutions and professional backgrounds to work together. As a result, funders and research organisations are placing greater emphasis on supporting interdisciplinary approaches.

However, interdisciplinary research can be difficult to do well. Teams often face challenges in integrating different forms of knowledge, developing shared goals and language, and building the trust and mutual understanding needed for effective collaboration. Differences in disciplinary norms, methods and expectations can create friction, while institutional structures such as funding systems, career incentives and evaluation criteria often remain geared towards disciplinary research. Power dynamics, disciplinary hierarchies and career-stage inequalities can also shape whose contributions are recognised and valued.

Although there is broad agreement that interdisciplinary research is important, there is limited evidence on the conditions that help it succeed in practice. Traditional measures of research performance, such as publication outputs and citation metrics, do not fully capture the behavioural, relational and organisational dimensions of interdisciplinary collaboration. This makes it harder to understand what effective interdisciplinary research looks like, how it develops over time, and how it can best be supported by teams, institutions and funders.

There is therefore a need for a more robust evidence base on the processes, behaviours and structures that underpin successful interdisciplinary research, as well as better approaches for evaluating success in ways that reflect the realities of collaborative, interdisciplinary work.

How are we helping?

RAND Europe is leading a three-year study for the UK Metascience Unit on the optimal conditions and approaches for successful interdisciplinary research. The project focuses on the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Cross Research Council Responsive Mode Pilot (CRCRM), a funding scheme designed to support highly interdisciplinary projects that would not routinely be funded through standard UKRI routes.

The study is designed to understand how diverse research teams build the cohesiveness needed to work effectively across disciplinary boundaries while retaining the benefits of diversity. It draws on the Diversity Approach to Research Evaluation (DARE), a mixed-method framework developed to assess collaborative research in real time, before conventional outputs such as publications and impacts are fully visible. DARE examines how diversity and cohesion interact across multiple dimensions, including cognitive, social, organisational, institutional and geographical factors.

Our work combines four main strands of activity:

• Scoping work to identify what successful interdisciplinary research looks like in practice. This includes engagement with the CRCRM cohort and a rapid evidence assessment of the academic literature.
• Applying the DARE framework to a sample of 12 Round 1 CRCRM projects. This involves interviews, mapping exercises and follow-up data collection to understand how interdisciplinary collaborations develop over time, how teams bridge differences, and what factors support or hinder cohesion.
• Qualitative observation of a sample of CRCRM projects including examining team interactions directly through on-site visits and virtual engagement, helping us understand aspects of collaboration that may not be visible through self-report alone.
• Surveying Round 2 CRCRM projects to test and extend findings from the earlier phases of the study across a broader set of projects and participants.

Together, these strands will generate new evidence on the conditions, behaviours and institutional arrangements that support effective interdisciplinary research. The project will also help improve how interdisciplinary research is evaluated by moving beyond narrow output-based metrics towards more multidimensional and process-sensitive approaches.

Project findings will support funders, institutions and research teams to better design, enable and assess interdisciplinary research, helping create conditions in which collaborative, cross-disciplinary work can thrive.

The project has been commissioned and funded by the UK Metascience Unit.