For a long time, the benefits that multidisciplinary research projects carry over their monodisciplinary counterparts has been a topic of debate. This article is meant to offer some insight into how multidisciplinary research projects tend to differ from monodisciplinary research pursuits as well as why they lead to more profound, innovative, and groundbreaking findings, more often than not.
The upcoming International Conference on Multi-Disciplinary Research Studies and Education – (ICMDRSE), which is a highly-anticipated virtual conference will go into detail about this any many more related topics which are of the utmost importance to researchers who are either interested in being a part of or are already involved in multidisciplinary research pursuits.
- Collaboration Is Key To Progress
Multidisciplinary research projects take place in several stages. Every stage involved multiple layers of research and experimentation, where each layer has to do with a particular stream of research in a particular discipline. This means that although the goals and objectives that researchers involved in a multidisciplinary research project, might be the same, they are often working separately focusing on their own areas of specialization. Most multidisciplinary research projects begin the same way.
The Typical Process
- First, the project leader summarizes the objectives and goals of the entire project.
- Then, he/she proceeds to map out the exact course of progress for the research project.
- After charting the exact path of progress, the project leader will get to know the exact challenges and hurdles that stand in the way of achieving the goals & objectives that were earlier identified.
- The project leader begins looking for field specialists from different fields who will help in solving the various hurdles & challenges that lie in the way of the overall objectives set out by the project leader.
- Upon identifying and recruiting such field specialists, domain authorities and experts who possess enough knowledge as well as research & experimentation capabilities to solve the challenges identified earlier by the project leader, the project leader kicks off the project.
- All the field specialists recruited begin working on solving the challenges that require their specialized expertise.
The Complexity Of Challenges Arising Increases As The Project Progresses
Although, to begin with, a multidisciplinary research project starts off with researchers working on solving different challenges that require their own specialized expertise to solve and overcome, sometimes they even work in conjunction with researchers whose field of interest and specialization is different from theirs. This depends on the nature of the challenge that they are setting out to solve and overcome. Most often, researchers of different specialization begin collaborating with each other only when midway through the project, or towards the end of it. This is because as the initial challenges which are less complex and require individual attention by experts in particular disciplines, are solved, more complex challenges that are more intricate in nature and require expertise across multiple fields, begin the crop up. Therefore, it is easy to see how multidisciplinary research projects encourage out-of-the-box thinking and more importantly a collaborative spirit to work in conjunction with professionals from different fields and be open to listening to their ideas as well as adopting new research methodologies and thinking differently from what you normally would. Register for the forthcoming 2023 virtual conference to learn more.
- Work Towards Solving A More Complicated Challenge
A researcher from one discipline who gets to work on a multidisciplinary research project has the privilege of learning more about not only his/her own field (which they specialize in and are there to offer their relevant expertise in), but also other disciplines that are associated with the project as a consequence of their correlative nature. For instance, a researcher whose specialty lies in mathematics and is taking part in an astronomy research project which involves some form of space exploration, planetary study, or study of some other celestial body, is bound to learn more about not just mathematics (as a consequence of the progress that they’ve made through their research work and the findings thereof), but also about subjects including physics, astronomy, chemistry, etc. This is owing to the fact that space exploration involves a whole gamut of fields and disciplines to come together.
Professionals With Diversified Talents & Specializations
One of the primary reasons for researchers with doctorates in multiple disciplines managing to accomplish this is because of the fact that they’ve been involved in multidisciplinary research studies at some point or other during the course of their research careers. While getting a doctorate in one discipline is hard enough, these professionals hold doctorates in multiple disciplines, often in disciplines that are closely associated with each other. A good way to tell if certain research professional with doctorates in multiple disciplines was involved in at least one multidisciplinary project during the course of his/her career or not is by finding if the disciplines that he/she has managed to acquire a doctorate in, are closely related to each other or not. This is because there are people with varied interests these days who like to delve deep into two disciplines that are very distinct from each other. These people do so simply because of they happen to be interested in two entirely different disciplines, not because they happened to be involved in a multidisciplinary research study of some sort involving these two completely distinct fields.
- Different Points Of View Are Available To Exploit
Monodisciplinary research studies are primarily made up of researchers from the same discipline, who have very differences in terms of their technical backgrounds. The only difference more often than not lies in their specializations. Even in this case, the fundamentals always remain the same, meaning these research professionals start every process from the same point of view. While it is natural for the uninitiated to think that having such like-minded people as part of a research team would result in more cohesiveness and very little creative or professional differences, this is far from the fact of the matter.
Monodisciplinary research studies have some of the highest research project suspension rates. This is pure because the researchers involved are too alike – thinking alike, approaching challenges in the same manner, without having any unique perspective or approach to offer in order to help solve a problem quicker, so that the research project may progress and innovative findings, as well as discoveries, may be made as soon as possible.
Increased Success Rates Overall
Multidisciplinary research projects on the other hand not only enjoy –
- higher rates of successful completion (in which case all or most of the initial objectives planned, are realized),
- higher acceptance rates for further funding (in which case the researchers involved in these projects get to prolong their experiments and studies delving deeper into phenomena that they could not explore the previous time owing to restraints with time or resources),
- more number of journal and publication opportunities with globally renowned, high-impact publications than their monodisciplinary counterparts,
but also carry the reputation of coming up with more innovative and groundbreaking findings that shape the future of one or more disciplines entirely, pioneering progress, development, and the further advancement of these domains. Register conference right away for deeper insights into this topic and many more.
- Creativity Abounds
Multidisciplinary research studies often lead to more innovative and groundbreaking findings and outcomes than monodisciplinary research ones. This is because people from varying disciplines working together without knowing where they are headed often leads to arriving at incredible, innovative findings even when there is no intention of doing so. These accidental findings and outcomes turn out to be something more amazing than what the research team initially set out to discover or uncover. This is why it is easy to see how multidisciplinary research studies receive more funding than their monodisciplinary counterparts.
Outcomes Of Greater Significance
When it comes to fulfilling the objectives of carrying out a research study or experimentation project, the objective of most projects is to come up with mammoth findings and conclusions that are capable of not only transforming entire disciplines, fields, and subdomains but also human life for instance. Some of the biggest inventions of all time were lab accidents in which the inventors (or experimenters/researchers as they might have been seen at that time) were performing experiments with different objectives and happened to arrive upon the findings that they did, purely by accident. This is one of the reasons why those involved in multidisciplinary research are told to pay attention to every detail, every outcome, and every scientific finding that they make, irrespective of whether it satisfies their preliminary goals or not. In fact, numerous accidental inventions have gone down the drain, simply because the researchers who made these discoveries dismissed them because they did not the initial goals that the researcher set out to achieve.
The varied expertise of the team carrying out a certain multidisciplinary research project also comes in handy because of the different sets of skills that each of these research professionals from different fields and disciplines brings to the table. Very often, monodisciplinary research studies suffer from like-minded researchers whose thinking is too similar to each other, meaning they are not able to offer different perspectives to challenges that they come across, making it harder for them to overcome these hurdles and make steadfast progress.
A Must-Attend Virtual Conference For Those Interested In or Already Involved In Multidisciplinary Research
With the world having witnessed one of the biggest crises in modern times, a lot of scientific, academic, technological as well as economic progress has taken a severe beating. Global economies are struggling to recover simply because industries and commerce haven’t begun to function to their fullest extent yet and manufacturing as well as production activities have yet to resume. In such a situation, it is more important than ever for the scientific experimentation and academic research communities to come together and set the record straight, by planning and implementing a clear roadmap to progress, economic stability, and steadfast technological development.
It is imperative for those either interested or already involved in multidisciplinary research work to come together and facilitate change as well as progress as quickly as they can so that the global economy, technological advancement can get back on track, and humanity might not continue to suffer because of the recent global crisis. How can the multidisciplinary research community accomplish this? By registering and participating in the International Conference on Multi-Disciplinary Research Studies and Education – (ICMDRSE), which is a virtual conference set to take place from the 29th to the 30th of October 2020. Hurry up and register for this upcoming virtual conference as soon as possible to avoid missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime. As registrations are pouring in from all over the planet, it is advised that you complete your registration right away.