The Case for Multidisciplinary Research: Perspectives and Examples

Identifying as a scientist by training, and a writer by vocation, C.P. Snow, in his 1959 Read lecture entitled “Two Cultures”, noted the existence of two polarized intellectual worlds: “Literary intellectuals at one pole – at the other scientists, and as the most representative, the physical scientists. Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension – sometimes… hostility and dislike, but most of all lack of understanding.

They have a curious distorted image of each other. Their attitudes are so different that, even on the level of emotion, they can’t find much common ground” (C.P. Snow. The Rede Lecture. University of Cambridge Press, 1959).

“Literary intellectuals at one pole – at the other scientists…Between the two a gulf of mutual incomprehension…hostility and dislike, but most of all lack of understanding.”

What Snow highlighted was a structural duality, already discernible in post Second World War Britain, resulting in the polarization of the arts and sciences, or the STEMS and HEMS as we know it today.

In Sri Lanka too, separate faculties for the Arts, Sciences, Technology, Medicine, Engineering etc. (which often have different academic calendars preventing students from taking cross-campus courses), and the lack of a multidisciplinary foundation for the entire student cohort (such as the liberal arts foundation provided to all students at renowned US universities) have resulted in the structural and attitudinal biases which Snow noticed in relation to his own context.

In the “knowledge economy” of today, however, there is an increasing emphasis on multi-disciplinarity or inter-disciplinary knowledge.

A knowledge economy revolves around capitalizing, patenting, and monetizing knowledge. The knowledge required for such leveraging, and for meeting the challenges of the 4th industrial revolution that is upon us, is innovative knowledge.

The relevance of a multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approach for innovative research cannot be underestimated. Joint work speeds up the innovative process because when people from different disciplines design a research project, they enable an integration of concepts, theoretical frameworks, perspectives, information, and methodologies from two or more subject disciplines.

The fusion of ideas and methodologies that occurs can create new paradigms. As the knowledge produced from such collaboration is also more holistic, it carries the potential for innovative application. Therefore, joint work speeds up the innovation process and the adoption of innovation into practice.

It thereby creates academic, economic, and social wealth. For these reasons we need to build a culture of partnerships based on an inclusive and collaborative environment for all stakeholders in which innovation and creativity will thrive.

Towards this goal, the University of Colombo is increasingly establishing strategic partnerships, whether public-private, or intra-faculty, inter-faculty, or inter-university including partnerships with international universities.

The building of research capacity and capability, enhanced research funding, fostering peer-reviewed high impact publications, and boosting organisational reputation and rankings of the university nationally, regionally, and in time, internationally are also important tasks in developing a conducive environment for multidisciplinary research.

Emphasis on skills building alone amongst students who will be the future generation of researchers is not enough here. Rather, to become future research collaborators, the ability to critically engage with one’s own subject including its history of ideas and institutional practices is important. Similarly, genuine multidisciplinary research is not based on instrumentality – where a subject specialist from another field is added last minute in an “add to the mix and stir” approach.

Rather, the integration and dialogue of each discipline within a research project is sought from the design stage itself.

Two Centers with great potential for multidisciplinary research which are based at the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo, are the Social Policy Analysis and Research Centre (SPARC) and the Center for Disability Research, Education and Practice (CEDREP). SPARC has 15 years of experience in research on youth, poverty, urban housing, the social impact of conflict, and displacement due to both conflict and natural disasters.

Its collaborative practice includes research teams drawn from the University of Colombo as well as various universities based in the UK, Europe, Russia, and South Asia providing a model of joint research collaboration which brings together multiple perspectives from different contexts on the topic being researched. SPARC’s study on online violence against children, for instance, brought together experts in sociology, IT security, criminology and child rights and linked SPARC with the Center for the Study of Human Rights based at the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo.

Similarly, its REGARD project on community re-building after disaster, draws on experts from the fields of sociology, built environment, urban planners and disaster management.

CEDREP is a relatively young center at the University of Colombo but well placed to conduct multidisciplinary research, given the push within disability studies itself to move beyond medicalization and the pathologizing of disability.

The field now incorporates expertise, literature and methodologies from psychosocial, cultural and social studies. The potential for researchers from anthropology, cultural studies, literature, education, sociology, psychology and medicine to work on disability is immense.

Other departments at the Faculty of Arts such as the Departments of Sinhala and English have also moved towards multidisciplinary research, working with experts from the computing field in their research on national languages processing and digital humanities respectively.

Many individual researchers at the Faculty of Arts also engage in inter-disciplinary research by virtue of their disciplines (such as anthropology or postcolonial and cultural studies) being already inherently multi-perspectival.

The Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, engages in several collaborative research projects through its different units, centres, departments, and involvement at the individual level.

The Meditation Research Group, for instance, which is funded by the World Bank AHEAD grant, engages in collaborative research, investigating the effects of meditation on genetics, different illnesses such as diabetes, metabolic health, epilepsy, Parkinson diseases, psychological effects, mental stress and environmental impact. Different specialisations such as genetics, endocrinology, neurology, psychology, community medicines, sociology and the humanities are represented in the Group which also supports several PhD projects in the collaborating fields.

The Centre Combating Tobacco (CCT) also functions out of the Faculty of Medicine. It is the observatory of tobacco for Sri Lanka and the region, publishing research in this field. (https://cct.lk/?page_id=61). The implementation partners include the Alcohol and Drug Information Centre (ADIC), the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) Sri Lanka, the Expert Committee on Tobacco, Alcohol and Illicit Drugs of the SLMA, and the WHO Country office for Sri Lanka.

The project is powered by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Secretariat and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, with technical assistance from the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, and the Centre for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco.

The human genetics unit is engaged in genetic and genomic research into rare genetic disorders and inherited cancer syndromes. The research aims are to discover novel genetic variants, provide precise diagnosis, prognostication, and prevention of these conditions providing psychosocial support for those affected. The research involves collaboration across a wide variety of clinical fields such as oncologists, paediatricians, and haematologists.

Academics in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology are currently engaged in research projects on the microbial bioremediation of petroleum hydrocarbon pollution involving the disciplines of microbiology, molecular biology and chemistry / biochemistry. A project on Functional Alginate-TiO2-Graphene Oxide nanohybrids to minimise post-harvest loss and to retain nutritional value of fruits and vegetables also involves the fields of biochemistry, agriculture, food science and nutrition.

Technical cooperation between the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Faculty of Medicine in the study of energy expenditure and body composition using stable isotope methodologies is also taking place with a view to developing interventions for the reduction of cardiometabolic risk.

This research involves the fields of biochemistry, nutrition, and physiology, and is being carried out as an international collaboration with the University of Tasmania’s Center for Exercise and Sports Medicine, and St. Johns Research Institute, Bangalore for stable isotope methodology. It also supports PhD students.

The Parasitic Disease Unit at the Medical Faculty also engages in research into leishmaniasis with international collaborators and the involvement of field workers and supports several PhD projects covering diverse aspects of the disease.

The Faculty of Science of the University of Colombo, represented by 7 Departments, has been at the forefront of knowledge creation and innovation through committed research for many decades. In this rich research culture, academics/ researchers, together with undergraduate and postgraduate students integrate with society to solve day to day problems, innovate and advance science. With 34+ research groups, 290+ researchers and with an output of approximately 100+ publications and a few patents annually, multidisciplinary research is the current mainstay of the Faculty of Science. This has been identified as the mandatory way forward to successful research output.

Many multidisciplinary research centers function at the Faculty of Science. Contributing to the 4th industrial revolution, the Center for Data Science of the Department of Statistics engages in and facilitates research and development in big data analysis methods.

It also seeks to bridge the gap between academia and industry through consultancy work in data science which is an inherently interdisciplinary field.

The Research and Development Centre for Mathematical Modelling, established in 2012, is affiliated to the Department of Mathematics. This Centre provides a vibrant platform for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research activities through Mathematical Modelling.

The research conducted at the Centre is based on both Theoretical and Applied Mathematics, and mainly focuses on developing practical solutions for real-world problems of vital importance such as dengue and Covid19 etc.

The Center for Immunology & Molecular Biology, and the Environment and Resilience Unit of the Department of Zoology and Environment are recent additions to the institutional development of multidisciplinary research at the Faculty of Science, while the Center for Transdisciplinary Biotechnology Research which embraces the 4th industrial revolution, is the latest addition to this cohort.

The latter aims to contribute to national economic development by providing a platform for industry-oriented, innovative, transdisciplinary, outcome-based research.

Joint work speeds up the innovative process and the adoption of innovation into practice. It thereby creates academic, economic, and social wealth. For these reasons we need to build a culture of partnership based on an inclusive and collaborative environment for all stakeholders in which innovation and creativity will thrive.

Establishing strategic partnerships… The building of research capacity and capability, enhanced research funding, fostering peerreviewed high impact publications, and boosting organisational reputation and rankings of the university nationally, regionally, and in time, internationally are also important tasks in developing a conducive environment for multidisciplinary research.

It is of utmost importance to recognise that our academic endeavours should focus on local needs and imperatives.

It is of utmost importance to recognise that our academic endeavors should focus on local needs and imperatives. Multidisciplinary research can contribute to this task by bringing in a broad range of perspectives, methods and expertise.

As illustrated above, significant strides have been made at the University of Colombo to foster research collaborations amongst the various departments and specialisations within faculties, and joint research with other national, regional and international universities. As a next step, the greater integration of the STEMS and HEMS into a STEAM approach, incorporating the arts and design etc. to STEMS research, and conversely, more of the sciences into humanities and social sciences research is desirable.

This will go a long way to easing the polarization and misunderstanding between the arts and the sciences that C.P. Snow lamented about, and the integration of knowledge it will bring can only be to the benefit of humanity - which is the objective of research in the first place.