Research and Innovation Services

Dipping a toe in interdisciplinary waters is a new pilot programme designed to support a small cohort of scholars from SHAPE disciplines to explore their interdisciplinary understanding and practice. 

Time commitment:

Applicants will commit to attending four in-person half-day sessions between February – March 2024: 

• 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 21 February (workshop 1) – Studio 2, ARC
• 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 6 March (workshop 2) – Studio 2, ARC
• 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 20 March (interdisciplinary networking session with wider group of colleagues from across UofG) -- Researcher Development Suite, ARC
• 9.30 – 12.30, Wednesday 27 March (workshop 3) – Researcher Development Suite, ARC

Aims and rationale:

As a research community, we are increasingly seeing funding calls that span multiple research councils and/or explicitly require interdisciplinary teams. This has been great for highlighting the importance of collaborative working, and we have made huge strides in supporting people who feel ready to come together in reaction to specific calls. This programme is aiming to answer a different question: How to support colleagues who may be “interdisciplinary-curious” to explore the concept of interdisciplinarity, before asking them to commit large amounts of time to collaborative funding bids?

The Dipping a toe.. programme is not about interdisciplinary bid-writing, or pitching your ideas to potential collaborators. Instead, it’s about providing time and space to think about interdisciplinarity as a concept; the different perspectives, assumptions and insecurities we bring from our “home” disciplines; our own journey in collaborating with others; and where we want to develop our skills. 

We want to think about the types of questions that working in our disciplines allows us to ask, and how these inform the ways in which we might contribute to, or benefit from, interdisciplinary research. As part of this work, we hope to think more deeply about how we move beyond arts, humanities and social sciences as the “poor relation” or bolt on area in interdisciplinary projects. 

We’ll use small group discussions and activities to explore these issues. We will ask you to share reflections and to join in activities with an open mind, but we won’t ask you to stand up and present anything in front of a group. 

This programme is designed to be of interest to you if…

• You know there are opportunities for interdisciplinary research, but are uncertain about what your role might be in this sort of project;
• You have been interested in interdisciplinary calls in the past, but lacked the confidence to put yourself forward as part of a team;
• You sometimes feel uncertain or insecure about how others might “judge” your discipline or methods; 
• You’re interested in exploring interdisciplinarity, but genuinely don’t know if this is something you would enjoy or be “good” at.  

The programme is open to all career stages post-PhD, from PDRAs to Professors. We welcome applications from those with no practical experience of interdisciplinary research, and from those with some experience who want to reflect on and deepen their practice. This programme is not aimed at researchers who already have significant experience of leading interdisciplinary work.

The intended outcomes include…

• Be better able to articulate, and feel more confident in explaining, your own potential contribution to interdisciplinary projects;
• Have a better understanding of why some aspects of interdisciplinary research may feel challenging to you, and where you are willing (or not) to invest your time and energy;
• Better understand some of the assumptions and dynamics of interdisciplinary research, and explore potential ways of working through these;
• Develop new connections with a small network of SHAPE researchers interested in exploring the possibilities for interdisciplinary research.

Participants will be expected to….

• Commit to three half day (in person) workshops, attend a “practical” networking session, and carry out a small amount of reflection between sessions;
• Be willing to reflect on your own experiences and actively participate in the sessions;
• Be open to listening to others’ experiences, including where these experiences differ from your own.

Application process and timeline:

This is a pilot project, so spaces are limited.

You can apply via Inkpath by 5pm on Monday 5^th February, telling us why you are interested in this programme. Please include any experience you have of interdisciplinary/ collaborative research to date. 

Please note:  we strongly encourage applications from people who have limited or no involvement in funded interdisciplinary research projects. If that is you, please do apply. “Experience” here might also include being part of interdisciplinary reading groups, attending cross-college networking events, being interested in interdisciplinary calls but not pursuing for whatever reason, or simply being curious/ intimidated by the current focus on interdisciplinarity.