Delivering on the promise: how are sustainability research institutes enabling interdisciplinary research?

Interdisciplinary research institutes and centres have become significant elements of the university organisation, sometimes of equal or even greater influence than departments in terms of their research activity and outputs. Many of these research institutes, particularly larger institutes that include researchers from multiple departments, have made the pursuit of interdisciplinary collaboration a central goal in their research mission, and in many universities research institutes may be one of the primary vehicles by which universities deliver on their own objectives for interdisciplinarity. Despite the potential for research institutes to advance interdisciplinary research on university campuses, there are a lack of studies on how interdisciplinary research centres integrate multiple disciplines in practice, how they influence the collaborative behaviours of scientists, and how they establish collaborative communities. Within this study, thirty interviews were conducted with leadership and faculty within four sustainability research institutes in the United States exploring how research institutes support interdisciplinary research within their units. A thematic analysis on the interview data revealed eight themes on how research institutes are, and can further, enable interdisciplinary research within their organisations and universities. Some of the themes are fully implemented within the research institutes, while others are more aspirational, and signpost to where institutes can create additional capability and capacity for interdisciplinary research within their units and universities. The study will be of particular interest to research institute and university leadership who wish to cultivate a deeper culture of interdisciplinary research within their organisations