Interdisciplinary research and geography: Overcoming barriers through proximity
Author
Summary, in English
Contributions on interdisciplinary research have so far focused on barriers to such collaborations and strategies for overcoming these. In this paper, we propose that a geographical perspective contributes to understand the formation of successful interdisciplinary research collaborations. The empirical analysis of a centre for clinical cancer research illustrates the importance of considering the role of geographical proximity to collaborators and decision-makers, as well as the co-location of excellent research groups within different fields, in overcoming barriers to interdisciplinary research. We suggest that policies aimed at stimulating lasting interdisciplinary research collaborations should take the distance between collaborators into account.
Department/s
Publishing year
2015
Language
English
Pages
242-254
Publication/Series
Science and Public Policy
Volume
42
Issue
2
Full text
- Available as PDF - 345 kB
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Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
- Human Geography
Keywords
- interdisciplinary research
- geography
- proximity
- collaboration
- cancer research
- two-community gap
Status
Published
Project
- Organisational Change for Innovation and Institutional Entrepreneurship in Health-Care Systems (ICIS)
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1471-5430