Interdisciplinary research has consistently lower funding success

dc.contributor.authorBromham, Lindell
dc.contributor.authorDinnage, Russell
dc.contributor.authorHua, Xia
dc.date.accessioned2016-09-20T01:19:41Z
dc.date.available2016-09-20T01:19:41Z
dc.date.issued2016-06-30
dc.description.abstractInterdisciplinary research is widely considered a hothouse for innovation, and the only plausible approach to complex problems such as climate change. One barrier to interdisciplinary research is the widespread perception that interdisciplinary projects are less likely to be funded than those with a narrower focus. However, this commonly held belief has been difficult to evaluate objectively, partly because of lack of a comparable, quantitative measure of degree of interdisciplinarity that can be applied to funding application data. Here we compare the degree to which research proposals span disparate fields by using a biodiversity metric that captures the relative representation of different fields (balance) and their degree of difference (disparity). The Australian Research Council's Discovery Programme provides an ideal test case, because a single annual nationwide competitive grants scheme covers fundamental research in all disciplines, including arts, humanities and sciences. Using data on all 18,476 proposals submitted to the scheme over 5 consecutive years, including successful and unsuccessful applications, we show that the greater the degree of interdisciplinarity, the lower the probability of being funded. The negative impact of interdisciplinarity is significant even when number of collaborators, primary research field and type of institution are taken into account. This is the first broad-scale quantitative assessment of success rates of interdisciplinary research proposals. The interdisciplinary distance metric allows efficient evaluation of trends in research funding, and could be used to identify proposals that require assessment strategies appropriate to interdisciplinary research.en_AU
dc.format4 pagesen_AU
dc.identifier.issn0028-0836en_AU
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1885/108920
dc.publisherNature Publishing Groupen_AU
dc.rights© 2016 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Natureen_AU
dc.sourceNatureen_AU
dc.subjectacademies and institutesen_AU
dc.subjectAustraliaen_AU
dc.subjectauthorshipen_AU
dc.subjectcooperative behavioren_AU
dc.subjectorganised financingen_AU
dc.subjecthumanitiesen_AU
dc.subjectinterdisciplinary studiesen_AU
dc.subjectresearchen_AU
dc.subjectresearch support as topicen_AU
dc.subjectscienceen_AU
dc.titleInterdisciplinary research has consistently lower funding successen_AU
dc.typeJournal articleen_AU
dcterms.accessRightsOpen Accessen_AU
dcterms.dateAccepted2016-05-11
local.bibliographicCitation.issue7609en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage687en_AU
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage684en_AU
local.contributor.affiliationBromham, Lindell, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, CMBE Research School of Biology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationDinnage, Russell, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, CMBE Research School of Biology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.affiliationHua, Xia, Division of Evolution, Ecology & Genetics, CMBE Research School of Biology, The Australian National Universityen_AU
local.contributor.authoremaillindell.bromham@anu.edu.auen_AU
local.contributor.authoruidu4350613en_AU
local.identifier.citationvolume534en_AU
local.identifier.doi10.1038/nature18315en_AU
local.identifier.essn1476-4687en_AU
local.identifier.uidSubmittedByu4579722en_AU
local.publisher.urlhttp://www.nature.com/en_AU
local.type.statusPublished Versionen_AU

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