Define Institutional and Cultural Barriers - Infuse Biology?
Inside the university, the departmental promotion and tenure committees understand well the value of contribution to a discipline. It is frequently harder to evaluate and appreciate research in a different area. Junior researchers are frequently counselled not to take part in multidisciplinary collaboration until after tenure. Funding agencies such as NSF and NIH often mirror the universities in attitudes towards collaboration, both in the balkanization of disciplinary programs and in the proposal review process. Funding for "interface" areas is dependent on either separate funding mechanisms or the goodwill of program staff to grow an area. In the latter case, proposals at the interface often need to face a double gauntlet of review from two or more disciplines to be funded. Furthermore, funding agencies, in pursuit of maintaining and growing their budgets, look for new, timely opportunities. However, building the interface between disciplines requires a long-term commitment with sustained funding. In general, the research community also does not afford opportunities to develop interdisciplinary research. Participants of the workshops noted that within the scientific community there is widespread timidity of and lack of knowledge about funding agencies that could support interdisciplinary research. Whereas this lack of knowledge is a accountability of the researcher, research institutions and funding agencies could do a lot more to advertise funding probabilities. Additionally, the scientific community could actively create funding opportunities for interdisciplinary work. The present NSF-funded Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure grew out of the previously funded Supercomputer Centres Program that came into presence by community pressure in the form of two unsolicited proposals. We notice that NSF in specific does have an interest in fostering interdisciplinary research, yet there are still too few projects that can work as role models. More requirements to be completed to spread the message not to be timid with ideas.