Why cross-disciplinary working is crucial for building researchers’ skills and expertise to address societal challenges
By Dr Gemma Moore, Senior Research Fellow (Evaluation) & Lecturer (Teaching), The Bartlett, UCL Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL Grand Challenges is based on the premise that solutions to the greatest challenges rarely come from one field alone — there is a need to work with others and build collective knowledge and agency to develop the most effective solutions. Collective knowledge comes from working in groups and emerges out of building relationships. This is what Grand Challenges aims to do — but we recognise that cross-disciplinary working, bringing together the knowledges and approaches from of a wide range of stakeholders, can be difficult when starting out on your research journey.
Working in teams, communicating research and engaging with others are valued and recognised skills — for instance, the VITAE Researcher Development Framework, has a whole section on engagement, influence and impact. Although the research landscape has changed in the last 15 years, I remember the challenges of being a postgraduate researcher well; the solitary experience of finding my feet with my subject, working out where I fitted in, and attempting to ‘build a network’. I was keen to collaborate, coproduce and make a difference — but was lost on where to start.
And I know I wasn’t alone. Within the 2019 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey (PRES), a bi-annual survey that collects students’ responses about their academic experience, only 47% of postgraduate students agreed that there were opportunities to develop transferable skills during their studies. In terms of development opportunities, only 30% of students agreed that there were opportunities to work and engage with non-academic partners, such as in industry or elsewhere.
To be ‘disruptive’ to the research landscape status quo, it is essential to provide opportunities for postgraduate researchers to work with others, bring together different knowledges, jointly develop new approaches, and apply their ideas to practice. This is not only key for building skills and networks, but also for fostering a research culture that helps to tackle societal challenges.
An opportunity to ‘disrupt’ and develop
The Civil Society Futures independent inquiry, which explored the future of civil society in the changing world, noted “change won’t come from outside — it is in our hands. It requires all of us to re-examine and renew our behaviours, attitudes and practices”. This includes universities too; we need to renew our practices if we are to develop strategies to create innovative solutions to societal problems.
The Evaluation Exchange at UCL has been putting such disruption into practice since 2018, providing opportunities for postgraduate researchers to enhance their research skills outside of a university setting, work collaboratively with voluntary and community sector organisations in Newham or Camden, connect with others with different perspectives and expertise and make a difference in the real world.
A partnership between UCL and voluntary sector organisations, the programme aims to improve evaluation practice — the practice or process of critically examining a project or programme and making changes as a result.
Drawing upon recognised approaches for building capacity in evaluation, the programme provides structured support via training and advice to the students and organisations involved, and is based on experiential and collaborative learning. Working together for six months, research students and organisations exchange knowledge and build skills in effective evaluation practice.
Why take part?
There are numerous reasons why programmes like the Evaluation Exchange are key for postgraduate and early career researchers looking to try out cross-disciplinary working, develop networks and build skills.
An Evaluation Exchange pilot in 2018 highlighted the numerous benefits related to skill development and employability, as well as opportunities to learn from those working in the field — with one early career researcher stating:
“By far the longest-lasting learning point from this experience is the idea that there are other experts besides academic researchers.”
As well as providing opportunities for students to build connections with others at a time when they are more isolated due to the shift to online remote working, there is also a growing body of evidence on the value of knowledge exchange schemes and volunteering opportunities to mental health and wellbeing. Research by NCVO in 2019 found that over three quarters of volunteers had improved their mental health through getting involved.
It is widely agreed that collaborative, cross- and trans-disciplinary working is crucial to addressing the unprecedented collection of challenges affecting society. However, we also need to build researchers’ skills and expertise to do exactly this: work effectively with others, bring together a diversity of knowledge and expertise, and integrate a range of ideas and approaches. The Evaluation Exchange provides one way of doing this, offering an innovative, solution-orientated, practical learning programme for researchers at the start of their careers to build skills and expertise needed in order to address societal challenges.
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More about the author
Dr Gemma Moore has experience of working on activities that bridge research, evaluation and engagement, whilst supporting people and partnerships working towards positive social change. Gemma is a Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in the UCL Bartlett Institute for Environmental Design and Engineering, her research interests focus upon knowledge production, participation, social sustainability and health and wellbeing. She leads the Evaluation Exchange.
Find out more about The Evaluation Exchange
Want to get involved? Find out more here. Applications are now open! Closing on Wednesday 23rd June 2021.
