Pàgina principal

Protocol for interdisciplinary research

Introduction

The protocol document for interdisciplinary research aims to provide useful references and guidelines for institutions, funding bodies, individual researchers and interdisciplinary research groups. The document takes into account a wide number of experiences and visions on interdisciplinary work. It is an open document under ongoing reviewing and discussion.

This document presents guidelines for institutions, funding bodies, interdisciplinary researchers and groups. It is the result of the exchange of experiences and the theoretical discussion among the participants in two workshops.

The first draft was edited by Simon Penny, based on input from participants in Synergies Workshop on Interdisciplinary Research June 28-30 2013, and especially Roc Parés, Mara Balestrini and Swen Seebach.

The second draft was edited by Tere Badia and Marta Gracia, based on inputs from participants in WIRKT Workshop on Interdisciplinary Research and Knowledge Transfer July 10-12 2014, and especially Swen Seebach and Josep Perelló.

Both workshops were organised and hosted by Hangar in Barcelona under the auspices of Softcontrol (European Commission - Culture Programme 2007 – 2013). The last version of the Protocol and the documentation of the workshops is available on the online platform Grid_Spinoza.

About Hangar

Hangar is a centre for art research and production, offering support to artists since 1997. Hangar’s mission is to support the visual artists and creators during the different phases of their art production processes as well as to contribute to the best development of their projects. For doing so, Hangar facilitates them equipments, facilities, production assistance and a suitable context for experimentation and free knowledge transfer. The centre offers an array of services and a framework that allows for the research and development of art productions in their entirety, or partially. Hangar follows up on the results by including the projects in various networks and platforms, or by detecting possibilities for their incorporation within other fields.

At an international level, Hangar has carried out more than 50 artists exchanges with other centers around the world. Since 2007 it participates as a partner in several European cooperation projects, most of them in the frame of the former Culture programme and in the field of new technologies applied to art and creativity.

Moreover, since 2010, Hangar has developed different contexts and methodologies for the transfer of knowledge, methodologies and results between different disciplines. This has been done in the framework of the project Grid_Spinoza (www.gridspinoza.net) and some European cooperation projects such as Soft Control (www.softcontrol.info – still ongoing).

Contents

1. Introduction

1.1. Arguments for interdisciplinary research

1.2. Disciplines as cultures

1.3. Difficulties and challenges encountered in interdisciplinarity

1.4. Approaches for interdisciplinary projects

1.5. Challenges for institutions and funding bodies

1.6. Practical tips for survival, success and sustainability

2. Methodologies

2.1. Methodologies to enhance interdisciplinarity

2.1.1. Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Research Methodology for Sustainability

2.1.2. From Disciplinary Methodology to Methodology of Fields of Action

2.1.3. Action Clusters and Methods

2.1.4. Transdisciplinary Methodology and Social Responsibility: “Responsible Innovation and Science”

2.1.5. Methods and Ethics

2.2. Research Methodologies

3. Value of interdisciplinary research and evaluation indicators

3.1. Outcomes

3.2. Assessment, Indicators, Reporting, Dissemination

3.2.1. Some considerations regarding indicators of evaluation for interdisciplinary research projects

3.2.2. The role of the expert

3.2.3. Assesment criteria and indicators

3.2.4. Some other possible assessment criteria and indicators

3.2.5. Reporting methods

4. Economy on knowledge transfer in interdisciplinary researcher

4.1. From Disciplines to “Epistemic Zones of Action”

4.2. Creating Community

4.3. Interruption as Continuity

4.4. Dissent, Dissonance, and Conflicts

4.5. Ethics

4.6. Transparency and Visualisation

4.7. Transformation

4.8. Performativity

4.9. Instituting Competencies

5. Scenarios

5.1. Transdisciplinary Scenarios

5.2. Approaching research in a cross-disciplinary manner

5.3. (Non) inventory of (im)possible stages for cross-trans-multi-disciplinar-ity

6. Appendices

6.1. Appendix 1: List of participants in the writing of the Protocol

6.2. Appendix 2: General reference Texts, examples of methodological critique

6.3. Appendix 3: Examples of interdisciplinary (art/design) projects

6.4. Appendix 4: Some examples of interdisciplinary sustainability projects, Living labs, citizen science, studies of embodied practices, etc.

6.5. Appendix 5: Full texts of the Writing Group on Interdisciplinary Research and Knowledge Transfer - WgIRKT