SPECIAL REPORTS: TOWARD INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Science in the present society faces increasing number of societalproblems (environment, energy, water etc.) as a result of economicdevelopment and advancement of scientific research. Most of theseproblems cannot be settled only by applying scientific knowledge ofsingle specific discipline, but coordination between different domainsof knowledge-Interdisciplinary Research-is indispensable. Althoughefforts to implement interdisciplinary research and education startedin the early 70s, accumulation of cases are still wanted, theoreticalunderstanding of the value chain in the interdisciplinary research oreducation is waited. In this special issue, seven cases ofinterdisciplinary research and education is presented, that is aimedto be the starting point to call more attention in this topic.