Exploiting the multidisciplinary environment in Oulu Teemu Pennanen 19th October, 2018

Multidisciplinarity/ Interdisciplinarity in research - Working at/over the boundaries of different academic fields - Combines concepts, techniques and knowledge from two or more fields - Requires boundary-crossing expertise and co-operation

General importance of interdisciplinarity: - Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary approaches - Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge. - Interdisciplinarians ease the communication between fields, and thus mobilize more intellectual potential

Benefits for multidisciplinary teams: - If research problem requires combining expertise from different fields, there is more chance that no one has done it before - In a multidisciplinary team no-one needs to know everything (complementary skill sets) - Multidisciplinary approach may open new funding opportunities.

Benefits for you: - Your specific knowledge or technique may be standard in your own discipline, but novel in others, leading to your advantage in solving problems - One can develop a unique set of skills by gathering experience from different fields - Coming from outside gives an opportunity to suggest out-of-the-box solutions

- New funding opportunities - New funding opportunities. (Keep in mind that developing an academic research career after PhD depends heavily on person’s ability to get funding on his/her own…) - Career-wise: with broader experience and greater diversity of skills may lead to new employment opportunities

How to be more multidisciplinary How to be more multidisciplinary? - Talk and meet people outside your own field (at conferences, research visits, here at Oulu, ...) - Get experience from different working environments (home group vs. other, domestic vs. abroad, academia vs. industry, etc.) - Be part of collaborative research projects and funding proposals

What UniOGS can offer to enable skills/mobility/broader view? Courses on transferable skills (useful tools in any field or collaboration) - UniOGS Travel Grant calls three times a year (conferences, research visits,…) UniOGS Mentoring Programme (career development with the help of a mentor, for example from industry…)

Multidisciplinary environment in University of Oulu Our university’s strategy embraces multidisciplinarity: “Our researchers contribute to solving global challenges by combining multidisciplinary approaches, high level research and fruitful collaborations in the following five focus areas” Creating sustainability through materials and systems Molecular and environmental basis of life-long health Digital solutions in sensing and interactions Earth and near-space system and environmental change Understanding humans in change

Faculty of Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine 8 FACULTIES Faculty of Biochemistry & Molecular Medicine Faculty of Medicine Faculty of Education Faculty of Humanities Oulu Business School Faculty of Science Faculty of Technology Faculty of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering UNIVERSITY OF OULU GRADUATE SCHOOL 4 (multidisciplinary) Doctoral Programmes Health & Biosciences Human Sciences Technology & Natural Sciences Information Technology & Electrical Engineering 4 MULTIDISCIPLINARY FOCUS INSTITUTES (Advancing multidisciplinary research) Biocenter Oulu Eudaimonia Kvantum Institute Infotech Oulu

Potential challenges of multidisciplinarity Different terminology and conventions: without “common language” and potential misuse of terms/concepts may lead to misunderstandings, confusion and ineffectiveness. Solution: positive attitude and acknowledging different backgrounds help alleviate this problem. Furthermore, discussing/explaining terms and concepts usually leads to better understanding of the original research problem and may lead to new definitions that help solving the original problem itself.

Potential challenges of multidisciplinarity Career-wise: downside may be an unclear/confusing professional identity and subsequent difficulty for employers to categorize your competence. Solution: If you have a clearer view of your own skill set and competences, you can also communicate them better to others (e.g. employers). It pays off to think and modify your CV from time to time even if you are not looking for a job at the moment.

Potential challenges of multidisciplinarity Other potential problems may include: trust issues, ego issues, sharing credit/authorship, funding,… No clear solutions exist for all these. Compare upsides vs. downsides. Goodwill, humour, and constructive attitude will help.