Crossing borders of academia from the perspective of an internationalizing university (editorial)

Nature’s September 2015 special issue on interdisciplinarity is designed to probe how scientists and social scientists tend to work together to solve such grand challenges as those of energy, food, water, climate and health. The collection of features, comments and case studies pulls together some interesting data on interdisciplinary work and its history, meaning and funding. Its editorial entitled ”Interdisciplinary science must break down barriers between fields to build common ground”3 makes a strong case for integration of disciplines that have different objects of study, methodologies and procedures, and yet that can converge in research projects that help explain a complex phenomenon more accurately or help design social interventions or public policy more reasonably. The recent visibility of interdisciplinary research has been attributed to a potential to bring significant change to how ”normal science” is done.