Cross-disciplinary Research Projects

Guidelines for the candidature of Research Higher Degree students undertaking cross-disciplinary research projects

There is widespread recognition that many research projects can no longer be completed satisfactorily within the confines of individual disciplines. Despite this recognition, there are often difficulties with effective cross disciplinary research, including that conducted by postgraduate students. Some of these difficulties are institutional and funding related; others relate to the conceptual and methodological differences between knowledge domains. To help ensure cross-disciplinary postgraduate research is supported effectively, the following advice is offered in the areas of supervision, project development, candidature milestones, examination and funding.

Supervision

The collective expertise of the supervisory committee (Principal Supervisor, Co-supervisors, Associate supervisors) should include all the disciplines involved in the project. In addition, all supervisors particularly the principal supervisor, and the Research Student Monitor should be supportive of the proposed cross-disciplinary approach.

However, the “home” school normally where the Principal Supervisor is located, has final responsibility for the candidate and the progress of their project.

Project development

Supervisors whose collective expertise spans all disciplines relevant to the project should be involved in the project from its inception, including the setting of the research questions and deciding on the research methodology.

Candidature milestones

For the confirmation of candidature, annual reports and exit seminar processes, it is important that the cross disciplinary entirety of the project be considered as well as its disciplinary components. The candidature milestone reports should be signed off by all supervisors. If disputes arise over methodology, the option of using external peer review should be explored.

Examination

The collective expertise of the examining panel should span all the component disciplines of the thesis. In addition the panel should include at least one person who can assess the cross-disciplinary whole. It may be appropriate to select three examiners, all of whom should be explicitly made aware of the cross-disciplinary nature of the research through the abstract supplied to them when they are first approached informally by the Principal Supervisor. In nominating each examiner, the Head of School is required to indicate if s/he has expertise in all facets of the project. This is particularly important in the case of cross-disciplinary research. The Certification of Supervisors form should be signed off by all supervisors at the time of submission of the thesis.

Funding

Many cross-disciplinary student projects will involve supervisors from different schools. In such cases it is preferable that the division of EFTSLs across schools is agreed at the commencement of the candidature and reviewed annually as circumstances change. In deciding on this division, the relative contribution of each school to supervision, infrastructure and project costs should be considered along with the weighting of these three components.

Because of the difficulties with the various terms used to describe research that is not grounded in a single discipline, the term ‘cross-disciplinary’ is used here rather than the more prescriptive descriptors ‘multidisciplinary’, ‘interdisciplinary’ and ‘transdisciplinary’ e.g. Physics/Sports & Exercise Science, Marine Biology/Environmental Science, Medicine/Physiology.