IN3 prize for interdisciplinary research announced

23/05/2019

To raise awareness on the global challenge of fostering interdisciplinary research, proposals for the UOC's new Cross, Inter, and Trans-Disciplinary Collaborations Prize will be accepted until 14 July. The Prize seeks to recognize an article, book or patent resulting from interdisciplinary research conducted at the UOC in 2018. The winning proposal will receive €2,500, which is to be used for the research activity in 2020. The call is aimed at teaching and research staff at the UOC, as well as post-doctoral and pre-doctoral researchers and administrative staff.

Submissions should be sent to the Knowledge Transfer and Research Support Office (OSRT) at preaward_osrt@uoc.edu. You should include a summary of a maximum 500 words explaining your proposal and highlighting its interdisciplinary value. You should also specify the context of the project; the interest and objective of the study; the nature of its interdisciplinarity with regard to the people and institutions involved; and its social impact, which should be related to global challenges such as green technologies, an ageing population and sustainable urban development.
 
Proposals will be considered interdisciplinary if they highlight the need to tackle a subject area from a range of disciplines. Another aspect to be taken into account will be the ability to have defined collaborative working strategies, with a spirit of dialogue and the presentation of an end result that is a sum of all the parts.
 
Promoting interdisciplinary research
 
In an increasingly more globalized world, a significant number of the challenges facing society will have to be tackled from a perspective that draws on a range of disciplines. Unlike multidisciplinary research, with objectives divided among the various disciplines to achieve an end result, in an interdisciplinary project, interaction between the different perspectives is an essential requirement for setting common goals that pool their combined knowledge. As set out in the UOC Strategic Plan, the University aims to become a model and a benchmark in interdisciplinary research. By fostering R&D projects based on this approach, the Cross, Inter, and Trans-disciplinary Collaborations Prize achieves just that.