How Can Research Programs Promote Interdisciplinary Research:Case Study on the Major Research Projects of National Natural Science Foundation
Interdisciplinary research has become a necessary approach and an important means to promote the scien-tific frontier,solve the key technical problems and cope with the social challenges.It is of great theoretical and practical significance to strengthen the understanding of the regularity of interdisciplinary research and explore the funding and or-ganizational forms of interdisciplinary research that conform to the law of interdisciplinary development and suit the characteristics of basic research in China.The major research program of the National Natural Science Foundation(hereinafter referred to as the"major re-search program")is an important form of funding and organizing interdisciplinary research in China.The research shows that the implementation of major research programs effectively promotes the cross-integration of disciplines and improves the ability of cooperation.The major research program is an institutional innovation to support interdisciplinary research.With the guidance group of experts as the core,the major research plan is composed of different types of projects to determine important re-search questions and related discipline layout around important research fields.Under a unified scientific framework,re-searchers from different disciplines are guided to apply for interdisciplinary and comprehensive research.There have been many studies and summaries of major research projects.However,the current research on the success factors of major re-search programs in promoting interdisciplinary research is basically at the level of experience summary,and there is still a lack of in-depth theoretical thinking and case analysis.The research question of this paper is"How do major research programs promote the development of interdisciplin-ary research",which includes several aspects:What internal laws does the development of interdisciplinary research fol-low?How is the system of major research projects structured?How does the institutional structure and operation of major research programs promote the development of interdisciplinary research?This research examines major research projects from two theoretical perspectives of knowledge production and system operation,and adopts the decision-making,information,motivation(DIM)theory to analyze the operation of the system from three aspects:decision-making structure,information structure and dynamic structure.From DIM's perspec-tive,as a social activity of knowledge production,the institutional structure of the research plan includes three aspects:decision-making structure:the decision-making power and content of different subjects in each link from planning direc-tion,goal setting,project implementation and management to the completion of planned tasks;Information structure:infor-mation transmission and exchange mechanism between program manager,program implementer and each project;Dynamic structure:The dynamic of the scientific research covered by the research program.This research takes the major research plans implemented during the"Tenth Five-Year Plan"and"Eleventh Five-Year Plan"as an example to study how the institutional structure of major research plans promotes interdisciplinary research,fo-cusing on the implementation stage of the plan.The research shows that:In terms of core scientific issues,major research programs pay attention to the interdisciplinary nature of scientific problems,provide clear directions and research space for the participation of multi-disciplinary researchers,flexibly and ef-fectively allocate and integrate resources through project layout,and pay attention to the correlation between projects in different disciplines.Second,during the research process,the major research projects shall be supported stably for 8～10 years,and the normalized communication mechanism shall be adopted to enable the research projects of different disci-plines and different levels to carry out continuous and in-depth exchanges,so as to ensure the cross-disciplinarity of dif-ferent degrees within,between disciplines and between main research directions of the major research projects.And through the exchange mechanism to stimulate the sparks of disciplinary ideas collision,formal academic exchanges to pro-mote spontaneous academic cooperation,explore and cultivate new disciplinary growth points,and in the form of addi-tional funds and project upgrades to timely support and support,to promote interdisciplinary knowledge production.Third,in the integration process,major research programs sort out and integrate the previous research results,and produce sys-tematic research results formed by the integration of multi-disciplinary cognition in key research directions.Major research program guarantee the basic elements of interdisciplinary research development in the system setting,reflected in the objectives,top-level design,project types,the behavior of each participant and the relationship and process.These rules have established the direction for the implementation of major research programs,provided an incentive mecha-nism for researchers in related fields to apply for major research programs,standardized the guidance,management and re-search activities of major research programs,created a platform for multidisciplinary exchange and cooperation,reduced the cost of exchange and cooperation among researchers in various disciplines,and improved the efficiency of research.Major research programs attract and motivate multidisciplinary researchers to participate in three aspects:scientific problem selection,funding and organizational forms.The steering expert group plays a key role in the interdisciplinary development of major research programs,from the establishment of program objectives,the selection of core scientific questions to the initiation of projects,process management and integration,and the organization of talent teams.The vari-ous information channels and mechanisms established by the major research program promote interdisciplinary develop-ment in three aspects:promoting continuous exchange and cooperation,facilitating the adjustment and integration of the program layout and realizing the program objectives.Major research programs form an overall mechanism to promote interdisciplinary research:At the planning level and top-level design,the positioning of major research programs is to guide multidisciplinary comprehensive research and joint research to solve core scientific problems and achieve the overall scientific objectives.At the project level,research projects of different disciplines are set up in the project layout to leave room for substantive interdisciplinary research.At the process level,in the specific management links,each major research plan adopts different institutional arrangements in project application,academic exchange and other links to guide and promote interdisciplinary.At the guidance level,the importance of interdisciplinary and professional complementarity in guiding and guiding this major research plan was fully taken into account when the expert group was formed.
interdisciplinarymajor research projectscomparative economic theoryNational Natural Science Foun-dation of China
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