Programme-level innovation in interdisciplinarity
Relu brought together research communities with little if any experience of collaboration.
• Deliberate efforts were made to build capacity including: seed-corn funding mechanisms to forge links across disciplines and with stakeholders; workshops and conferences were carefully orchestrated to promote shared perspectives on cross-cutting themes; training and career development of researchers in cross-disciplinary working was encouraged; and dedicated interdisciplinary studentships and early career fellowship schemes were established
• Scientific institutions are often poorly set-up for enabling interdisciplinary research. Managing Relu called for strategic collaboration between councils.The three participating research councils agreed to pursue a strategic collaboration, pooling the funding and the management of the programme under a joint Programme Management Group and Strategic Advisory Committee. This unified management structure facilitated the introduction of joint and streamlined arrangements to support interdisciplinary research. These included combined arrangements for assessment of research applications, data management, output archiving and research evaluation.
• Relu has encouraged an interdisciplinary approach to data management. It was at the forefront of implementing data management planning for research projects.
For the first time, for Relu the Councils set up a cross-council Data Support Service, which established a linked achiving system for interdisciplinary data sets and an integrated knowledge portal, bringing together published scientific outputs and data records.
The research programme funded a Director's Office which provided for an integrated approach to scientific leadership and knowledge exchange and ensured the flexibility and operational responsiveness needed for entrepreneurial programme management.
There are a number of Relu publications which explore these issues in more detail:
Adventures in Science: Interdisciplinarity and knowledge exchange in the Relu Programme
Innovation in interdisciplinary methods – the Relu experience
Societal and Economic Impact Evaluation of the Relu Programme Report Part I
Report Part II (including Case Studies)
Review of the Relu Programme First Call Seedcorn Funding Mechanisms