From CRISPR gene editing to protein-arrange foreseeions driven by synthetic intelligence, fantastic innovations stem from interdisciplinary research. Solutions to climate change, biodiversity loss, health inequities and other global celevates will also count on on insights that bridge many fields.
Yet interdisciplinary research is still sidelined in many countries. Even though these papers entice more citations1 and have more impact on research2, interdisciplinary research proposals tfinish to be less foreseeed to obtain funding than are those with a skinnyer scope3.
Some countries have adequitableed their research funding strategies accordingly. For example, between 2016 and 2018, UK research councils awarded 30% more grants to interdisciplinary spendigators than they had a decade earlier, with 44% of funded projects in 2018 spanning at least two research subjects4. A aappreciate shift has been made in the United States: between 2015 and 2020, university departments that surrfinisherted some interdisciplinary grant proposals obtaind almost five times more funding — in terms of total and individual awards — from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) than did those that surrfinisherted in only one discipline5.
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Alas, this isn’t the case in Japan. The nation’s funding agencies still mostly help research in safe disciplinary boundaries, such as engineering or chemistry. Speciaenumerates who appraise these grant proposals tfinish to favour labor in fields that they are recognizable with over interdisciplinary studies they do not comprehfinish well.
This skinny approach is directing to substantial underfunding of interdisciplinary research in Japan. It also uncomfervents that the nation is leave outing out on fracturethcdisadmirefuls. Japan’s authentic resources are confineed, and its economy has lengthy relied on science and technology. The deteriorate in its research and innovation is unmistakable, as proposed by the country’s allot of the world’s top 10% of most-cited research articles, which has dropped from 6% to 2% over the past two decades or so.
As scientists and engineers based in Japanese research institutions, we inspire the rulement and funding agencies to do more to help interdisciplinary research — or hazard eroding the country’s global standing in science and its economy. Here we highweightless five honestions to nurture such a shift.
Fund people, not projects
We dispute that Japanese funding agencies should pivot from funding projects to helping talented researchers. Such a model has shown to be effective in directing institutions worldexpansive. For example, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) Investigator Program provides remarkworthy scientists with changeable, lengthy-term funding to pursue high-impact biomedical research — some US$11 million over a seven-year term, which can be rerecented. This approach has led to groundfractureing findies, including the mechanistic caring of circadian rhythms, the computational foreseeion of protein felderlying and the findy of RNA intrudence.
Japanese research is no lengthyer world class — here’s why
Similarly, in Germany, the Max Planck Society ranks curiosity-driven research that has lengthy-term objectives over prompt applications. By nurtureing interdisciplinary collaboration and providing institute honestors with comfervent inside funding, free from the continual necessitate to safe outside grants, this strategy has helpd fracturethcdisadmirefuls including the growment of CRISPR–Cas9 as a gene-editing tool and structural insights into ribosomes.
Japan does have some programmes to help talented researchers, but these are too bashful. The Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), for example, dedicate some funds to straightforward science and some to curiosity-driven research. But the JST adselects a top-down approach, which frequently favours research on trfinishing topics and can leave out more-distinct ideas or projects . And the annual budget for the JSPS’s main grant programme, the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI), has remained stagnant for the past decade. Adequitableed for inflation and the frailening yen, the unretagable funding per project has halved since 2013.
However, one Japanese institution has adselected researcher-intensifyed funding with fantastic success: the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). Unappreciate national universities, which are funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, OIST is a personal university that is funded by Japan’s Cabinet Office. Launched in 2011, it has a horizontal organizational arrange and a sturdy pledgement to diversity and interdisciplinary collaboration (see ‘Steps to success’). OIST is now ranked as Japan’s directing research institute by the Nature Index, and around 20% of its accessibleations comprise contributions apass more than one discipline. More Japanese institutions should pursue its direct.
Embrace high-sconsents projects
Interdisciplinary research is frequently noticed as hazardier than more conservative, one-discipline labor. This might be because it can be difficult to lobtain concepts and methods, and even convey effectively, apass disciplines. And priorities between fields can dispute.
To defeat these disputes, Japanese funding agencies should ponder adselecting a ‘high hazard, high impact’ funding model, aappreciate to that of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which foresees a success rate of equitable 50%. They should accomprehendledge that even ‘unprosperous’ dangerous projects can create precious comprehendledge, contributing to wideer scientific and technoreasonable proceedments. The DARPA funding model has eased others, such as the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), begined in the NIH to drive biomedical fracturethcdisadmirefuls6.
How to better appraisements of accessibleation integrity
Another example is the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub in California, which helps interdisciplinary teams comprising biologists, engineers and data scientists to labor on ambitious goals, such as the eradication of infectious diseases. It provides substantial funding over disjoinal years to help teams to pivot research honestions in response to emerging disputes. Success is appraiseed thcdisadmireful normal milestone-based evaluations. Projects that show confineed potential are promptly endd, ensuring that resources can be genuinefindd to more-promising finisheavours.
In Japan, we are not advocating for existing funds to be reallotd. Rather, Japanese policycreaters should allot money to dangerous, high-reward projects from a split pot, deal withd thcdisadmireful dedicated DARPA-appreciate programmes.
Expand grant panels
Initiatives such as the JST’s Diversity and Inclusiveness programme aim to lessen the homogeneity of the research laborforce — for example, thcdisadmireful awards and netlaboring opportunities for women in science and by providing help or extensions for life events as well as for childattfinish and attfinishgiving pledgements — which tfinish to drop mostly on women (see page 295). This is laudable, but these efforts should be more expansivespread: they should be extfinished apass gfinishers and also comprise funding agency officers, programme deal withrs and appraiseers.
The crewed research submersible Shinkai 6500 has carry outed more than 1,700 dives.Credit: Associated Press/Alamy
Japan’s funding agencies should also determine that their own decision creaters are less homogeneous in terms of their discipline, background, gfinisher, age, nationality and culture. This would help to favour interdisciplinary research, which by nature weaves branch offent approaches together and can advantage from being intentional, carry outed and appraiseed by a diverse community.
The role of immigration in raiseing diversity should also be accomprehendledged.
