Encouraging Interdisciplinary Collaboration: A Study of Enablers and Inhibitors Across Silos in Higher Education

Abstract

Within UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) there is evidence of limited interdisciplinary communication and engagement (Macfarlane, 2006). The focus on discipline-based working practices has created a lack of awareness regarding research taking place elsewhere that may overlap with or bolster work being undertaken by the researcher (Bess & Dee, 2012). Teams that work across discipline-based boundaries acknowledge their differences and work to build trust through finding the strengths in researcher differences, and in so doing are more likely to succeed in collaboration (Johnston et al, 2011). This article builds upon the work of Siemens et al (2014) who developed a model for effective interdisciplinary collaboration. The research looked at the impact of, and engagement with, interdisciplinary collaboration on individual researchers and their differing needs. Through identifying the enablers and inhibitors of interdisciplinary activities in addition to the different needs and approaches of researchers at different stages of their careers, a framework for best practice has been developed.