Interdisciplinarity: breaking down research barriers in Bordeaux

Simply bringing several disciplines together is not enough to achieve interdisciplinary research. A legal expert studying water regulation and a biologist analysing water quality may work on the same subject without their approaches actually intersecting - this is referred to as multidisciplinarity. Interdisciplinarity begins when they compare their methods and knowledge to formulate, together, a research question - for example, on how to adapt regulations to changes in watercourses. The aim is to generate new knowledge by transcending the boundaries between disciplines.

"Interdisciplinarity is a form of hybridisation", explains Lise Monneraud, who supports this approach at the University of Bordeaux. "Every scientist must understand the methods, constraints and needs of other disciplines in order to work with them to develop a common research focus, based on a shared vision. Knowledge is no longer simply juxtaposed: it transforms mutually."

This approach comes into its own in the face of major contemporary challenges. "In healthcare, for instance, artificial intelligence can help analyse large quantities of medical images to characterise tumours. However, algorithm specialists must work closely with doctors to ensure that the tools developed meet the actual needs of diagnosis and patient care," explains Lise Monneraud

That said, "interdisciplinarity must not become a requirement,  she emphasises. The disciplines remain essential: it is the solidity of the knowledge acquired within each of them that enables them to engage in dialogue. The challenge is rather to give scientists who wish to broaden their research the means to do so, by finding partners and moving beyond the usual boundaries of their field of expertise."

This is one of the aims of the Interdisciplinarity Observatory, which is currently being set up in Bordeaux. Forming part of the Bordeaux campus’s enhanced cooperation initiative (FORESITE), it will not be limited to the University of Bordeaux: its purpose is to monitor collaborations across the entire campus and amongst its partners.

"The idea is to be able to characterise the interdisciplinary profile of the institution and its partners, to identify where there is a need for reinforcement and where it would be useful to foster communities", explains the Observatory’s coordinator, Vanessa Zhendre, who leads the FORESITE unit. "The Observatory will draw in particular on the analysis of scientific publications, reviews of funding schemes and the mapping of supported projects. Ultimately, this data should make it possible to visualise the links between disciplines and research themes, to pinpoint existing but sometimes overlooked collaborations, and to identify new opportunities for convergence."

It is therefore not simply a matter of identifying interdisciplinary projects, but also of gaining a better understanding of what they produce and how support mechanisms can be improved. An institutional launch of the Observatory is scheduled for January 21^st 2027, during the ‘Interdisciplinary research in practice (in French)’ event, which is open to all interested researchers.                     

Careers still overly disciplinary?

But interdisciplinarity can also undermine career progression - "at least, that is what some people fear", explains Lise Monneraud. Academic recruitment, qualifications and some aspects of research assessment remain structured by discipline today. Publications and their recognition within scientific communities still carry just as much weight in careers. These are all constraints that can disadvantage those whose profiles straddle several fields of research.

"We cannot expect researchers to take all the risks", emphasises Lise Monneraud. "A scientist whose work lies at the intersection of two disciplines may therefore be deemed too far removed from the expectations of either of them." At the same time, and in a way that might be seen as rather paradoxical, funding bodies are increasingly encouraging interdisciplinary projects, without recruitment and assessment criteria necessarily keeping pace. The challenge is therefore to better recognise these career paths, without weakening the disciplines themselves or imposing an interdisciplinary approach on all scientists.*

Changing practices on a national scale

Beyond these meetings, the aim is to establish a national network capable of bringing these issues to the attention of the institutions that help shape scientific policy. For whilst major societal issues do not stop at the boundaries between disciplines, research organisations have yet to learn how to transcend them.