Barriers and Solutions to Conducting Large International, Interdisciplinary Research Projects

Abstract

Global environmental problems such as climate change are not bounded by national borders or scientific disciplines, and therefore require international, interdisciplinary teamwork to develop understandings of their causes and solutions. Interdisciplinary scientific work is difficult enough, but these challenges are often magnified when teams also work across national boundaries. The literature on the challenges of interdisciplinary research is extensive. However, research on international, interdisciplinary teams is nearly non-existent. Our objective is to fill this gap by reporting on results from a study of a large interdisciplinary, international National Science Foundation Partnerships for International Research and Education (NSF-PIRE) research project across the Americas. We administered a structured questionnaire to team members about challenges they faced while working together across disciplines and outside of their home countries in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. Analysis of the responses indicated five major types of barriers to conducting interdisciplinary, international research: integration, language, fieldwork logistics, personnel and relationships, and time commitment. We discuss the causes and recommended solutions to the most common barriers. Our findings can help other interdisciplinary, international research teams anticipate challenges, and develop effective solutions to minimize the negative impacts of these barriers to their research.

Benefits, Challenges, and Opportunities of Conducting a Collaborative Research Course in an International University Partnership: A Study Case Between Kansas State University and Tallinn University of Technology

“…Although this took additional training sessions, faculty at both universities considered it time well spent for both the student “instructors” and student “learners.” Developing awareness of gaps in skill and knowledge levels is critical to the success of any collaborative project. Moreover, as most of the teammates were speaking in a second language (English was not the first language of some of the KSU students either) occasionally increasing the level of communication difficulty to fully understand progress and results occasionally (Pischke et al., ).…”

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“…A interdisciplinaridade aborda a relação entre disciplinas, mas pode também abranger as habilidades interpessoais, promover equipes mais produtivas e com relacionamentos fortes, e, até mesmo, obter uma mistura adequada de culturas, disciplinas, idiomas e uma visão compartilhada para gerenciamento de projetos (O'REILLY et al, 2017;PISCHKE et al, 2017).…”

Towards a Psychology of the Food‐Energy‐Water Nexus: Costs and Opportunities

“…A fifth reason that some psychologists may shy away from FEW nexus research stems from the aforementioned fact that such work, by virtue of being inescapably interdisciplinary in nature, necessitates working as part of an interdisciplinary team. Such teams can represent challenging environments and may include career costs (Al Sayah, Szafran, Robertson, Bell, & Williams, ; Pischke et al., , Schuitema & Sintov, ). For example, working as the sole social scientist on a project can be challenging if there is an expectation that one (as a psychologist) should be able to provide expertise across the entirety of the social scientific domain.…”