The Future Must Be Interdisciplinary

Global challenges such as climate change, the future of work, and smart cities increasingly require input from a range of subject experts.

Professor Sir Alan Wilson, Director of Research at IFT, reflects on the importance of interdisciplinarity for skills and capacity building, and for research.

His book Being Interdisciplinary was published on 3 May 2022. It is now available for free Open Access download or to purchase via UCL Press here.

 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, how would you define interdisciplinarity, or what it means to be interdisciplinary?

Disciplines can be defined in terms of ‘systems of interest’ – in the broadest terms, the physical, the biological and the social – often subdivided into specialisms. These disciplines all have their research challenges; but most research problems demand the application of elements of more than one discipline – and hence are interdisciplinary. To be interdisciplinary means being prepared to respond to this challenge to have the depth of what might have been your first discipline, and the breadth to be able to draw on concepts more widely.

Can you provide more concrete examples?

Start with perhaps the biggest challenge of all: climate change. It involves all disciplines and perhaps surprisingly, the most important might be social science. Or take cities, my own field. Professional areas such as medicine or engineering are inherently interdisciplinary because their focus is on identifying problems and solving them whether through clinical interventions or innovative, disruptive design.

What is the value of interdisciplinarity in a university setting?

There is an old joke: industry has problems and universities have departments – usually discipline-based. Introducing the idea of interdisciplinarity adds a new kind of thinking to a discipline-based core.

What do you see as the key challenges to interdisciplinary thinking?

Discipline-based departments in universities are very powerful. They are social coalitions with their own traditions, journals and conferences, and promotion criteria. Prestige is more likely to be associated with achievement within disciplines.

And how might these yet be overcome?

Research councils have increasingly recognised that most research challenges are interdisciplinary and this has provided strong incentives for universities to respond – for example by setting up interdisciplinary centres and developing supporting postgraduate courses. A small number of universities has abolished traditional departments and created units focused on interdisciplinary challenges. I wouldn’t go so far myself, as the in-depth discipline-based cores are crucial. But there is scope for introducing innovative modules to encourage interdisciplinary thinking; or indeed whole courses – as with the highly-successful Arts and Science degree in UCL.

And perhaps further still – why must they be overcome?

The big challenges for the future all demand interdisciplinary responses – climate change, the environment, economic development in the age of AI and ‘big data’ (with implications for the future of work), addressing social inequalities and poverty both nationally and internationally, cities, health services – examples from a long list. Universities must be in a position to play an effective role.

How might your book support those engaging in interdisciplinary activities?

My book has two interrelated themes: how to use a systems approach to help construct research projects – a guide to doing interdisciplinary research; interwoven with an account of my own experience of this kind of research.

Finally, how does interdisciplinarity play out at the Institute of Finance and Technology?

Finance is a ubiquitous element in all organisations and through effective planning and investment, it is the engine of development. The Institute is particularly focused on the future: digital finance, private equity and venture capital, and sustainable finance, all in the context of new technologies both within finance and within the economy more broadly. These are all interdisciplinary areas for building skills and capabilities, and for research.

And how would you define your role at IFT, as Director of Research, within this context?

Finance will be the engine of a good and growing economy, supporting social and public goals. Working with colleagues in the Institute, across UCL and in government and industry more broadly, I will aim to help construct research projects (which are inevitably interdisciplinary) which will support solutions to the social and economic challenges that lie ahead.