This is the Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA)

Last changed: 14 March 2023
Red wooden house by a pond. Photo.

Interdisciplinary Academy is an interdisciplinary initiative at SLU that started in 2022. The core of IDA is interdisciplinary research groups that for eight months get the opportunity to develop their ability to work interdisciplinary together and in an inspiring environment. The goal is to increase knowledge about interdisciplinary working methods at SLU as a whole.

The IDA initiative aims to increase knowledge about and interest in interdisciplinary research work at SLU, strengthen the ability of SLU's researchers to address research issues from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective and facilitate collaborations between different departments.

IDA includes thematic groups, consisting of researchers with different academic backgrounds, and outreach activities such as webinars, where various issues concerning interdisciplinary research are addressed and discussed.

In IDA's thematic groups, participants have the opportunity to allocate 20 percent of full time on complex issues and immerse themselves in interdisciplinary working methods. During the program, physical meetings are organized in Uppsala once a month with digital meetings in between. The Ullbo building on Campus Ultuna, next to the Knowledge Garden, is the creative environment and meeting place for the participants within IDA.

A new round of IDA will start in November 2023. The call opens on March 15 and the last day to apply is June 1. The application to IDA is made in groups around a theme that the group itself formulates in the application and which should be linked to complex issues in the area of green transition.

The work in the thematic groups can result in applications for larger projects or seed funding but does not need to do so. The important thing here is not about the goal, but about the journey – an opportunity for the participants to explore and develop their ability to work interdisciplinary without feeling any requirements for specific performance. The end result should be an increased understanding, level of knowledge and maturity among our researchers when it comes to interdisciplinary research.

IDA is led and coordinated by Marie Stenseke, professor of human geography at the University of Gothenburg and deputy dean at the School of Business, Economics and Law with many years of experience in interdisciplinary contexts. Read more about Marie Stenseke here.

The initiative is funded by the NJ Faculty and SLU Future Food and is in line with the faculty's strategy, which states that the faculty will strengthen the ability to process research issues from an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspective and facilitate collaborations between different departments.

Interdisciplinary Academy has been initiated and is led by SLU Future Food, one of SLU's four future platforms, all of which are tasked with promoting interdisciplinarity at the university.

Additional reading

SLU news November 2022: Kick-off for the new Interdisciplinary Academy

SLU news May 2022: The Interdisciplinary Academy – a new opportunity for SLU researchers

 


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