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Andrea Evers on interdisciplinarity in science
What is interdisciplinary research and which
opportunities and barriers are connected to it?
Professor Andrea Evers, chair of the Health,
Medical and Neuropsychology unit of Leiden
University, is one of the copywriters of a
publication on this topic, published by De Jonge
Akademie (The Young Academy).
Opportunities and barriers
Grensverleggend: kansen en belemmeringen voor
interdisciplinair onderzoek (Groundbreaking:
opportunities and barriers for interdisciplinary
research) shows the many opportunities
interdisciplinary research offers, but also the
obstacles that (still) exist, for example that
funding bodies and universities focus on defined
fields of research. However, interdisciplinary
research offers many advantages. It changes
scientific identity, by producing new questions,
methods and results, and in that way generates
knowledge that can contribute to a solution for
societal problems. Reason enough to remove the
barriers.
Recommendations
The authors put forward several recommendations on
how to stimulate interdisciplinarity. One of their
suggestions is that universities could reward
interdisciplinary initiatives by creating budget
for it. Another recommendation is that they can
create visiting scholarships or
visiting professorships for scientists
who wish to gain knowledge in other fields.
You can find the publication on the ScienceGuide website (in
Dutch).