EASST Crossing Disciplines to Address Urban Sustainability

Crossing Disciplines to Address Urban Sustainability James Paskins, Sarah Bell, Ben Croxford, Muki Haklay and Simon Julier University College London 4 th September 2010 presentation for Track 20 EASST conference 2010 EASST010: Practicing Science and Technology, Performing the Social

Aims of the Bridging the Gaps Programme
Introduced by the EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council)
Recognition that some problems benefit from a being approached by different disciplines
Funding allows a university to explore ways of making interdisciplinary research work

The need for interdisciplinary working
“ The world has its problems, but universities have departments”
Departments have their advantages
Concentration of expertise
Shared worldview
Real-world problems often require input from more than one discipline
Tension between efficiency and freedom

Urban Sustainability
Context of “sustainable urban spaces” research questions can be:
Socio-cultural
Political
Economic
Psychological
Not pure engineering or science problems
Problem driven research

Context of the programme
UCL is a large multi-faculty department, with many departments in central London.
Lots of equipment, technicians and research groups

About Bridging the Gaps at UCL
Research has to involve sustainable urban spaces
Collaborators must come from at least two different departments at UCL
At least cross-departmental if not cross-disciplinary
Any UCL department can be involved
Focus on early career researchers (activities cannot be led by a Professor)

Range of Bridging the Gaps activities
Open Programme – small initial funding for ideas
Seminar Funding
Visiting Scholar Award
Staff Exchange
MSc Competition – co supervision of MSc
Sandpit Funding – nanotech and sensors
Escalator Funding – for previous participants
Grant Writing Support
Champion’s Events – Network of representatives

A wide range of activities are funded
38 Collaborations funded so far, including:
Natural ventilation for greener and healthier buildings
Questioning the sustainability of post-industrial urban landscapes
Children, Well-being and Disability: Re-visiting India
Community Mapping in Hackney: Community use and appropriation of Hackney Marsh, London
Climate and Uncertainty Symposium
Duracoat: Using Nanoscience to protect wood
What's my energy footprint?

Feedback from participants
All the funded collaborations have to provide some feedback
Feedback has been sought in four areas:
About the people
About the ideas
About Bridging the Gaps funding
About the future
Part of a continuing feedback programme

About the people
Some were newcomers to cross-disciplinary work
“ it is surprising how little scientists interact with engineers” (DB)
Others see it as an essential part of their work
“ It is essential to work with other departments as most of the research topics involve multi-disciplinary collaboration…” (LC)
“ As everyone becomes more and more specialist it is inevitable that more and more cross disciplinary interaction is going to have to take place. ” (RB)

Broadly positive response
Perhaps not surprising: participants interested enough to apply and they had received funding
Some negative factors were identified
Collaboration can be “quite frustrating ... there is a reason why there is a gap… sometimes it is impossible to build bridges, people can become entrenched” (NK)
“ Cross-disciplinary working can be very time consuming” (NK)
“ Researchers may spend time transferring knowledge to cross-disciplinary colleagues ... with no immediate benefit.” (KJ)

Perceived failure of assessment processes
Increasing calls for cross-disciplinary research, encouraging researchers to network and collaborate
Frustration that cross-disciplinary work is not matched by cross-disciplinary assessment
Grant proposals
Journal reviewers
RAE/REF
“ despite [pushing] for more of it ... the research council peer review system hasn't entirely caught up with the reality of cross-disciplinary research.” (RC)

About the ideas
Some approaches produce entirely new collaborations
Some of the ideas were already being pursued before Bridging the Gaps
“ this project is half related to some ongoing work” (RB)
Some of the of the ideas require cross-disciplinary collaboration (sandpit groups)
nanotech & networked sensors with urban sustainabilty
“ cross-disciplinary collaboration [was] necessary” (AO)

Requirement for expertise or equipment
“ Energy efficiency is a function of many factors not studied in computer science departments” (KJ)
“ it allowed us to bring in ... staff from other departments [with] skills that we would have been unable to provide ourselves” (PH)
“ access to laboratory… to use specialist equipment” (LC)
“ the equipment in the two groups is shared and the researcher benefits from it” (JT)
“ Collaboration across disciplines and departments is most of the time very fruitful as it provides you with an opportunity to complement skills and knowledge.” (PH)

Further benefits from collaboration
Developing skills
“ I have gained ... understanding outside my background” (LC)
“ I also learned how to efficiently prepare for a large funding from my partner” (JT)
“ I liked the straightforward way physical scientists approach things” (NK)
Reaching a wider audience
“ It is going to take some of my research into different areas and to a bigger audience, hopefully it will help make the research successful in that we can start to tackle some of the huge challenges we are trying to address.” (RB)

About Bridging the Gaps funding
“ [The MSc competition] did provide the incentive … and we might not have been creative enough to think of the idea on our own!” (RC)
“ it would have been much harder to get started [without Bridging the Gaps]” (RB)
[it would have been] much more limited with less resources” (PB)

About the future: Continuing collaboration
“ [We] now share a PhD student” (JH)
“ we will push this [collaboration] in the grant proposals” (DB)
“ I think EPSRC funding is the next logical step.” (RB)
“ We plan to apply for a larger fund such as FP-7 or EPSRC” (LC)
“ the ideas generated during this project has helped me to think about a further proposal which I am currently outlining and will be submitted to the BBSRC” (AO)

Is cross-disciplinary research worth it?
“ Without a doubt” (DB)
“ Yes, definitely” (PH)
“ Possibly, depending on the time spent transferring knowledge and the benefits the cross-disciplinary collaboration” (KJ)
“ if the problem is of a truly cross-disciplinary nature ... then the benefits will definitely outweigh the complexities.” (AO)
“ very subjective [it is] about one's professional objectives and the things that make one's job worth doing.” (NK)

Conclusions
Participants open to cross-disciplinary working
Cross-disciplinary research is seen as the future, or the present, of research
Lack of funding seen as a barrier to novel collaboration
Time pressure and complexity also act as barriers
Frustration at discipline based assessment
Given the right problem, collaboration is seen as worth the difficulties involved

Conclusions
Cross-disciplinary working can fill a skills gap and provide access to useful equipment
It can also develop the participant’s skills and expose them to a wider audience
Small amounts of funding can be enough to initiate a collaboration and begin work on an idea
In some cases leading to larger grant applications
Information about resources and facilities and potential partners is also valued
(Champion’s Network)

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EASST Crossing Disciplines to Address Urban Sustainability

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