Creation of Interdisciplinary Science : A case of bioinformatics and quantitative biology in Japan(<SPECIAL REPORT>TOWARD INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT)

Abstract

For the advancement of science, establishing a new research community based on multiple existing research fields is an essential prerequisite. Such interdisciplinary collaboration is often hampered by unexpected difficulties, whose resolution is the task of policymakers at multiple levels-from the nation-wide to each institute/university-wise scale. This report discusses the assistance for a burgeoning research field before its publication stage through description about interdisciplinary life scientists in Japan. Semi-structured interviews to seven leading scientists suggested that meetings for interdisciplinary discussion and knowledge sharing also function for encouraging prospective and unspecialized students, and for providing "weak ties" which enable scientists to be more creative. Also confirmed are the importance of high specialty for conducting research even in interdisciplinary fields. The scientists spent quite amount of effort and time to acquire structured knowledge of another discipline. To support more scientists to try interdisciplinary research, improvement of personnel systems might be effective.