Exploring barriers to interdisciplinary research

This paper aims to increase our understanding of which barriers may hinder researchers from undertaking interdisciplinary research (IDR). IDR is research that builds on a set of theories, concepts, tools, data, and methods that are not available within a single discipline or specialty. IDR is a common policy priority because it is expected to generate knowledge to address complex societal problems such as climate change, sustainability, population ageing, etc. In order to understand the perceived barriers to undertaking IDR, we surveyed three groups of stakeholders in the UK Higher Education (HE) system: (i) researchers, (ii) managers in HE institutions, and (iii) managers in research funding organisations. We first defined three samples of potential respondents: a sample of 16,625 researchers based in UK HE institutions from 2013 to 2015 (this sample was stratified by regions at NUTS-1 level); a sample of 1,080 managers in 15 universities representing a cross section of UK HE institutions; and a sample of 539 managers in research funding organisations. The survey response rates were about 13%, 33%, 17% in the case of researchers (i.e. 2,183 responses), managers in HE institutions (i.e. 367 responses), and managers in research funding organisations (i.e. 94 responses), respectively. The survey provides evidence of discrepancies of the perceptions of barriers to IDR around four main areas (i) collaboration, (ii) career, (iii) evaluation, and (iv) funding across stakeholder groups and research areas. This has policy and managerial implications for the ease with which these can be addressed.