Biologists are from Mars, chemists are from Venus?

UD study explores how scientists from different fields work together

At the University of Delaware, Steve Fifield is leading NSF research on how scientists from different disciplines collaborate. Postdoctoral researcher Katherine McGurn Centellas (far left) and graduate research assistant Jennifer... Click here for more information.

“Plays well with others.”

That popular phrase on a T-shirt is being taken to a whole new level in higher education these days, as experts in a variety of fields increasingly must work together to address some of society's biggest challenges, from a warming planet to cancer.

But how do scientists from different disciplines and institutions collaborate? How do they work together to incorporate the distinct perspectives, languages and research styles of their fields?

“When scientists from different disciplines say 'We work together,' we want to know what that means,” says Steve Fifield, associate policy scientist at the University of Delaware.

Fifield, who is affiliated with the Delaware Education Research and Development Center at UD, is leading research to uncover how scientists from different disciplines form working relationships. The two-year project is funded by a $197,300 grant from the National Science Foundation's Innovation and Organizational Sciences program.

The findings will shed light on scientific collaboration--a process about which little is known, but much is expected.

“Agencies such as the National Science Foundation have deemed large-scale interdisciplinary research projects critical to U.S. innovation and competitiveness,” Fifield notes. “Yet there have been few studies of how scientists actually bridge disciplinary boundaries. There's no 'how-to' for it--at least not yet,” he says, smiling.