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Understanding and responding to today's complex environmental problems requires collaboration that bridges disciplinary boundaries. As the barriers to interdisciplinary research are formidable, promoting interdisciplinary environmental research requires understanding what motivates researchers to embark upon such challenging research. This article draws upon research on problem choice and interdisciplinary research practice to investigate motivators and barriers to interdisciplinary climate change (IDCC) research. Results from a survey on the motivations of 526 Ph.D.-holding, earlyto mid-career, self-identified IDCC scholars indicate how those scholars make decisions regarding their research choices including the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and the barriers arising from the nature of interdisciplinary research and institutional structures. Climate change was not the main motivation for most respondents to become scholars, yet the majority began to study the issue because they could not ignore the problem. Respondents' decisions to conduct IDCC research are driven by personal motivations, including personal interest, the importance of IDCC research to society, and enjoyment of interdisciplinary collaborations. Two thirds of respondents reported having encountered challenges in communication across disciplines, longer timelines while conducting interdisciplinary work, and a lack of peer support. Nonetheless, most respondents plan to conduct IDCC research in the future and will choose their next research project based on its societal benefits and the opportunity to work with specific collaborators. We conclude that focused attention to supporting intrinsic motivations, as well as removing institutional barriers, can facilitate future IDCC research.

Climate‐change impacts are among the most serious and complex challenges facing society, affecting both natural and social systems. Addressing these requires a new paradigm of interdisciplinary collaboration which incorporates tools, techniques, and insights from across the social, natural, and engineering sciences. Yet, a wide range of intrinsic and extrinsic hurdles need to be overcome to conduct successful, integrated interdisciplinary research. The results of a bibliometric analysis and survey of early to mid‐career scientists from 56 countries who were involved with the interdisciplinary DISsertations initiative for the advancement of Climate Change ReSearch (DISCCRS) emphasize the particular challenges faced by early career researchers. Survey respondents perceive conflict between the need for interdisciplinary climate‐change research and its potential detriment to career advancement. However, participation in interventions for early career scientists, such as networking and training symposia, had both perceived and measurable impacts on the likelihood of engagement in climate‐centric interdisciplinary research. Respondents also ranked alternative mechanisms for encouraging incorporation of interdisciplinary science at early career stages, prioritizing funding of interdisciplinary seed grants, fellowships, and junior faculty networks, interdisciplinary teamwork and communication training, and interdepartmental symposia. To this we add the suggestion that interdisciplinarity be incorporated into tenure and promotion evaluations through the use of exploratory science mapping tools. Despite the need to foster interdisciplinary research and the availability of multiple prospective solutions, there remain expansive structural challenges to its promotion and recognition which, unless collectively addressed, will continue to hinder its potential growth and application to climate‐change science. This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Knowledge and Practice Integrated Assessment of Climate Change > Methods of Integrated Assessment of Climate Change

While the world is becoming smaller in some senses, the intellectual terrain is becoming ever more difficult to traverse. The physical world is changing at an accelerated pace because of human activities. New technologies and intellectual breakthroughs have profoundly changed our understanding of the environment but also have revealed vast chasms of ignorance at the boundaries between disciplines. Disciplines have fractured, multiplied, and coalesced like volcanic islands in a sea of turmoil. The net result is that interdisciplinary collaborations are increasingly needed to extend research frontiers and address issues at the interface of science and society.

Addressing climate change successfully will require an interdisciplinary network of climate change scholars who can communicate effectively with scholars from other disciplines and with the many audiences beyond the ivory tower. Those scholars will need teamwork skills that foster sustained interdisciplinary collaborations and the specific professional skills and training needed for interdisciplinary scholars to navigate successfully in a disciplinary academic world. Yet, at present, our institutions of higher education are not providing these skills to new Ph.D.s. Most graduate students receive extensive disciplinary training but little, if any, training in doing interdisciplinary research, communicating effectively, or building their careers. The authors have developed DISCCRS-the Dissertations Initiative for the Advancement of Climate Change Research-to build this network of climate change scholars and to target these shortcomings in current training of climate change scholars. This article describes the institutional obstacles and disincentives that hinder the training of graduate students, and the career progress of faculty, interested in conducting interdisciplinary climate change research. The DISCCRS initiative's annual Symposia, Dissertation Registry, website, and weekly electronic newsletter are described as ways to build an interdisciplinary network of scholars and to improve that network's communication, team building, and early-career development skills. DISCCRS has developed a model that can be used, in whole or in part, as more universities take up the challenge of developing the next generation of climate change scholars.