1. Exploiting the multidisciplinary environment in Oulu
Teemu Pennanen
16th March, 2018

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. - 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

7. 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

8. 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…)

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.