History 2009 Leverhulme Trust call for “Embedding emerging disciplines” Joint SOAS/LSHTM/RVC/SoP bid 210 bids entered 6 short-listed 2 awarded LCIRAH and invisibility cloak (Imperial)

Overarching question How do we achieve sustainable food and agriculture systems which promote health and well being for all people?

AgricultureHealth Nutrition Toxicants Disease Labour Resources Income Household National Environment Pollution Sustainability

Award – primary use £3.5m over 5 years 75% must be spent on salaries Academic posts must be “tenured” by colleges after end of grant So far: – 12 PhD students (3 to complete this year) – 3 post-docs – 2 lecturers – 1 senior lecturer and 1 professor

Award – other uses Workshops - >10 over first 2 years – Gender – Sustainability – Antimicrobial resistance – Zoonotic diseases Annual conferences – 2013 – methods in ag-health – 120 abstracts Visiting scholars, speaker series etc.

Successes to-date Important funding awards – Small – mapping study for DFID – Large – LANSA RPC for DFID Significant publications emerging – Position pieces – Nutrition Society – Primary evidence – BMJ meta-regression Funded to design open access training materials Becoming recognised as go-to place for academic input in ag-health

LCIRAH: Value of interdisciplinarity Only way to tackle the bigger, more complex ‘real world’ research questions Expanded the set of metrics we engage Expanded the toolkit of methods we employ Resultant novelty has given us traction with high-ranking journals and with funders Fostered much greater understanding of (and sympathy for) those in other disciplines.

LCIRAH: Challenges of interdisciplinarity Time intensive Radically different research cultures across disciplines: uphill team integration task Sceptical/reactionary elements within each discipline Particularly challenging for early career researchers who face pressure to follow standard career path Lack of sympathy at many journals! Needs committed leadership

Lessons Learned Build interdisciplinary teams rather than (fully) interdisciplinary researchers Some disciplines integrate more easily than others Process can only be partly facilitated – a lot happens organically – but needs conducive atmosphere With research students – joint supervision model On balance, benefits significantly outweigh costs!

Thank you!