Innovation through border-crossing: Challenges of interdisciplinary, international collaborations

1. Innovation through border-crossing: Challenges of interdisciplinary, international collaborations Univ. Prof. Dr. Ulrike Felt Department of Social Studies of Science, Universität Wien Ulrike.Felt@univie.ac.at http://www.univie.ac.at/virusss 2nd Austrian Slovak Science Day Workshop C: Possible interdisciplinary co-operation between Natural Sciences, Technology, Humanities and Social Sciences Bratislava, December 6th, 2005

2. Research crossing disciplinary and national boundaries • Challenges of Biomedicine - Socio-cultural Contexts, European Governance and Bioethics (6th Framework Programme) comparative interdisciplinary project exploring the interrelation between socio-cultural conditions and ethical and legal framing of medical research and practice. It poses the question to what extent concepts of identity on the cultural, bioethical and political level are influenced by biomedicine and, conversely, shape and regulate the medical practice themselves. (6 +2 countries and a large variety of disciplines involved) • Informed Consent as a space of negotiation between biomedicine and society(funded under TRAFO, Austrian Ministry for Education, Research and Culture) establish a transdisciplinary space in which informed consent (for non-therapeutic research) will be reflected in a context sensitive way from different perspectives. We want to investigate how the different types of information are understood and negotiated, what concepts of the body are performed, the ways in which the relation of biomedicine and society is regulated and how this has an impact on clinical practice. (cooperation medicine/science studies)

3. Some reflections from these experiences • What does international/interdisciplinary cooperation mean for project partners and the coordinator? • chronic underestimation of time needed to work in interdisciplinary teams • different work traditions that need to be closely monitored and reflected • new ways of addressing issues (new vocabulary; same notions-differrent meanings) • methodological challenges (increased awareness of the possibilities and limitations of methods) • different expectations and understandings of project outcomes • Finding a common language: barrier or challenge? • English is generally a first choice as language of communication that opens possibilities • but shows its limits when wanting to do cross-cultural/country comparison • less a problem when all/most partners are non-native speakers

4. Some reflections from these experiences • How to build EU-co-operations – bilateral/regional projects as starting points? • EU project stand a good chance if build on previous collaborative experiences (more realistic possibilities of estimating structure and work procedures) • lowers the „investment“ in terms of building coherence in a project (holds in particular for interdisciplinary work) • How to create sustainablity? • What does ERA mean in terms of sustainability of established networks of collaboration? • Stability vs. flexibility

5. Some reflections from these experiences • What do notions of „excellence“ mean in research co-operations? • notion difficult to grasp in bigger networks; needs a rethinking of conventional imaginations of this notion • How to present a network beyond the evaluation of its partners? • How many less experienced partner can/should a network contain to make it a valuable European learning experience? • How much focus should the evaluation put on the project‘s capacity to make use of the possibilities and handle the limitations of work crossing conventional disciplinary boundaries? • Role of experiences in international co-operations • helps to understand and evaluate ones own position/capacities/knowledge in a broader context