Enhancing the value of interdisciplinary research for researchers and policy-makers:

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Enhancing the value of interdisciplinary research
for researchers and policy-makers lessons from
shared experience Piran White1, Steve
Cinderby2, Dave Raffaelli1, Annemarieke de
Bruin3 and Meg Huby3 Environment Department1,
Stockholm Environment Institute2 and Department
of Social Policy and Social Work3, University of
York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD E-mail
pclw1_at_york.ac.uk
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Introduction

• Growing consensus on need for interdisciplinary
  research to inform policy
• effective policy requires understanding of how
  social, economic, environmental and political
  factors interact
• But few examples of success in practice
• difficulties faced by researchers working in a
  truly interdisciplinary research environment
• problems faced by researchers and policy-makers
  in making policy-sense of results of research
• Lack of understanding of these problems can limit
  effectiveness of interdisciplinary research
  programmes

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Types of interdisciplinarity
Type 2
Type 1
Type 3
Social policy
Social policy
Policy
Research
Economics
Economics
Ecology
Ecology
Environmental science
Environmental science
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Aims and approaches

• Aim to identify best practice for more effective
  and policy-relevant interdisciplinary research
• effectiveness for researchers (type 1)
• effectiveness for research-policy linkage (type
  2)
• Two complementary approaches
• analysis of practices within international
  interdisciplinary research programmes
• our own experiences of working on
  interdisciplinary programmes, especially RELU

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Analysis of international interdisciplinary
programmes

• Systematic web-based search to identify
  international programmes with aims similar to
  RELU
• Programmes scored (0-16 points) according to set
  of objective criteria
• whether research was interdisciplinary
• whether research was policy-orientated
• capacity-building for interdisciplinary research
• emphasis on knowledge transfer
• stakeholder involvement
• whether programme was multi-site

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Programme scores against RELU
Acronym Initiative Points
RELU Rural Economy and Land Use 16
MISTRA The Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research 16
PEER Partnership for European Environmental Research 16
SFMN Sustainable Forest Management Network 15
USGCRP US Global Change Research Program 14
IHDP International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change 14
IIED International Institute for Environment and Development 13
IISD International Institute for Sustainable Development 13
IGBP International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme 12
WORLDFISH Worldfish Centre (previously ICLARM) 11
GRANO Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Production in North-eastern Germany 11
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation 10
NSF ERE National Science Foundation Environmental Research and Education 10
APN Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research 9
DIVERSITAS An international programme of biodiversity science 9
SLRP Sustainable Livelihoods Research Programme 7
EUROPA European Commission Fifth Framework Programme 7
ICRAF International Centre for Research in Agroforestry 5
ESSP Earth System Science Partnership 4
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Questionnaire targeting and response

• Programmes with 9 points were included in the
  questionnaire study
• 174 questionnaires sent to co-ordinators or
  directors of interdisciplinary programmes and
  initiatives
• 48 questionnaires returned (27)
• Questionnaires sent to 24 countries
• 77 of respondents had background or training in
  more than one discipline

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Vital statistics of collaboration
Half of programmes had lt10 collaborating
institutes
Just over half of programmes had 10-49
collaborating individuals
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Determinants of successful interdisciplinary
research
Mean importance rating s.e.
Aspect of interdisciplinary research

• Leadership, commitment, clear conceptual
  frameworks, trust and respect rated most highly
• Time (and money!) also important
• Teambuilding and geographical proximity not
  important

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Ideas for improving interdisciplinarity in future
programmes

• Use of clear, non-academic language to help build
  common conceptual frameworks
• Regular face-to-face meetings
• Availability of forums to facilitate discussion
• Regular self-evaluation and learning sessions
• Use of participatory methods
• Involvement of external stakeholders
• Strong relationships with community partners

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Lessons from our experience of interdisciplinary
working

• Experience from a number of projects, including
  several RELU projects
• Focus on the Social and Environmental Conditions
  in Rural Areas (SECRA) project
• aim to build a dataset for rural England
  integrating natural science and social data
• Discovered natural tendency to classify
  information in traditional, discipline-bound ways
• social / environmental / political / economic

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A new way of thinking about rural areas

• What is there?
• physical components
• land, infrastructure, facilities
• What is it like?
• qualities of people and place
• ecosystem health, pollution, amenity, climate,
  demography
• How is it used?
• living and working there
• housing, access to services, income and wealth,
  employment, education, behaviour
• What policy influences exist?
• political and economic context
• protective designations, area status
  (regeneration areas, subsidies etc.),
  administrative position, politics (parliamentary
  constituency)

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Common frameworks of language

• Success enhanced by familiarity with terms and
  language
• acronyms are barriers to cross-disciplinary
  understanding
• familiarity enabled through informal
  presentations of disciplinary papers by members
  of the team
• Effective communication is key to successful
  interdisciplinary research
• face-to-face interactions act as stimulus for
  exchange of ideas and understanding
• regular interactions build trust between
  researchers

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Common frameworks for data

• Interdisciplinarity can provoke challenging
  questions
• can research be truly objective and value-free?
• how objective are official statistics?
• how do scientific environmental bodies select
  their data?
• what units of reporting are used (and are these
  meaningful?)
• what level of aggregation is used (and what is
  most appropriate?)
• how are data reported (time and space)?

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Interdisciplinary time-space continuum
Global
Continental
National
Regional
County
Space
District
Neighbourhood
Field
Days
Centuries
Weeks
Years
Generations
Time
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Spatial issues in the SECRA study

• Super Output Areas used as base areas
• ideal for social data
• used in constructing Indices of Deprivation
• but vary in size (16 68,000 ha)
• also, boundaries political rather than physical
• Contrast with environmental data
• species data at 10km square
• land cover data at 1km square
• SECRA study required mapping of environmental
  data onto SOAs
• benefits from interdisciplinary involvement
• also from combination of different methodological
  skills

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Time for research

• Achieving successful interdisciplinarity requires
  time
• Unfamiliar literature
• Unfamiliar modes of thinking
• Establishing common and non-technical language
• Building of trust
• But investment of time is essential since trust
  required at all levels

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Time, language and trust in interdisciplinary
research
Conceptualisation of problem
Locating and understanding literature
Finding a common language
Developing trust and respect
Locating and dealing with diverse data
Dissemination to diverse audiences
TIME
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Interactions between researchers and policy-makers

• Trust needed between researchers, but also
  between researchers and policy-makers (type 2
  interdisciplinarity)
• Diana Rhotens hubs and bridges
• hubs are well-connected, but bridges enable
  links via specific interdisciplinary connections
• These hubs and bridges occur not only at the
  research level, but also at the level of
  research-policy and policy-policy interactions

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Enhancing interdisciplinary research

• Leadership, commitment, respect, trust and common
  frameworks are all important
• Clear language, regular meetings, informal
  discussion forums, use of participatory methods
  (involving non-researchers) all help to build
  trust and respect
• Interdisciplinarity more than just collaboration
  between researchers of different disciplines
• extended interdisciplinarity to encompass
  researcher-policy and policy-policy interactions

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Putting learning into practice

• New RELU project on social and environmental
  inequalities in rural areas
• Partnership between academic researchers and two
  UK government bodies
• Commission for Rural Communities
• Environment Agency
• Partnership group meets regularly throughout
  project
• plus work shadowing and work fellowship
  agreements
• Network of links beyond the partnership to an
  external advisory group and beyond
• model framework for policy-relevant research

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Framework for research-policy integration in
interdisciplinary research
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Acknowledgements

• UK Research Councils RELU programme for funding
• Projects RES 224-25-0099, RES 224-25-0062 and RES
  229-25-0004
• RELU is funded jointly by the Economic and Social
  Research Council, the Biotechnology and
  Biological Sciences Research Council and the
  Natural Environment Research Council, with
  additional funding from the Department for
  Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the
  Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs
  Department.