Science policy increasingly promotes collaborative research across disciplinary boundaries. This stands in contrast to the discipline reinforcing organization of science that discourages boundary-spanning research as it involves risks that are not captured by standard academic productivity indicators, an evident career hazard for non-established researchers. Boundary spanning research also requires the willingness, ability, and readiness to engage with different research cultures and learn about new methods.
SHoW was a four-year multidisciplinary research group which is fully funded for this period. It brings together researchers from the biosciences and the social sciences under a common thematic umbrella – wound healing. The research group has no fixed deliverables; the only constraints are the thematic area (wound healing) and methodological approach (open innovation). It is therefore an interesting case to study what kind of collaborations emerge (or not), given a blank slate start, a multidisciplinary team, and a high degree of freedom of research. The objektives of this study are as follows:
- Explore the outputs, outcomes, and impacts of this multidisciplinary research group.
- Extract lessons for organizational learning for future boundary spanning research groups.
- Study knowledge integration and boundary-spanning research practices within the research group, in collaborations with external partners as well as experiences within setting up SHoW within the LBG.
- Investigate the vision and organization of research at the multidisciplinary research group SHoW.