Interdisciplinary research: Motivations and challenges for researcher careers

Abstract

Interdisciplinarity is a fundamental asset in today’s research landscape, but its rules and habits vary from those of disciplinary approaches. This article aims to evaluate the impact of researchers’ participation in interdisciplinary projects on their scientific careers. To do so, we conducted a survey of researchers working at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the largest public multidisciplinary research institution in France. The survey is based on a sample of 970 respondents, representative of scientists from all disciplines and involved to varying degrees in interdisciplinarity. The main results indicate that involvement in interdisciplinary projects often starts very early (PhD, postdoctoral), and that interdisciplinarity is not slowing down career development. Interdisciplinarity has, however, certain specificities, such as the longer duration of projects and the absence of adequate scientific journals. In terms of valorization of scientific results, differences in disciplinary uses are found. Assessment criteria for interdisciplinary projects or careers do not take sufficient account of these specificities; they are considered inadequate to the challenges of interaction between disciplines and should be rethought. We make four proposals, which we believe essential to better recognize interdisciplinary scientific engagement.