The University of Lagos is one of Nigeria's premiere Universities, established in 1962 with core values emphasizing commitment to quality academic learning and character, integrity, continuous improvement of staff professionalism and competence, as well as a strong commitment to cutting-edge research. In 2012, the University established the…

Commissioned by the Coalition for Networked Information, this report examines the role of research universities in addressing complex societal challenges. It focuses on climate change, which is best characterized as a "wicked" problem. Such problems are difficult to define and lack clear solutions in part because they involve multiple…

Background: Laboratory studies explore the norms and characteristics of scientific practice and explain the constructive nature of knowledge production. However, how learning and research are sustained in engineering research laboratories at the graduate level requires further investigation. Purpose: We explored the cultural characteristics of an…

Interdisciplinary research is a popular mode of knowledge production that becomes intensively promoted by research centers all across the globe. Despite the facilitation of interdisciplinary research, however, scholars working in these centers are 'disciplined.' Career promotions, funding decisions and scientific publishing are based on…

Due to investments in interdisciplinary research endeavors, the number and variety of interdisciplinary research centers have grown exponentially during the past decades. While interdisciplinary research centers rely on varied organizational arrangements, we know little about the conditions and processes that mediate collaborative arrangements and…

Scholars have enumerated unique challenges to collaborative interdisciplinary research, many of which evade prescriptive solutions. Some of these challenges can be understood as "essential tensions," necessary and persistent contradictory imperatives in the scientific process. Drawing from interviews with internationally renowned…

Given the academic specialization endemic today in humanities disciplines, some of the most important work of humanities centers has become promoting education about the humanities in general. After charting the rise of humanities centers in the US, three characteristics of centers that enable their advancement of larger concerns of the humanities…

Whether celebratory or critical, STS research on science-industry relations has focused on the blurring of boundaries and hybridization of codes and practices. However, the vocabulary of boundary and hybrid tends to reify science and industry as separate in the attempt to map their relation. Drawing on interviews with the head of a research center…

Established in the year 2000, the Begun Center for Violence Prevention Research and Education is a multidisciplinary center located at a school of social work that engages in collaborative, community-based research and evaluation that spans multiple systems and disciplines. The Center currently occupies 4,200 sq. ft. with multiple offices and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of Universiti Sains Malaysia in promoting the sustainable development agenda through its leadership role in the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Penang using an "inside-out approach". Design/methodology/approach: This paper describes the institutional structure, policies and…

Interdisciplinarity has become the model of scholarly inquiry generally espoused by many who seek federal research funding. Interdisciplinary research centers pose challenges to academic settings and to investigators. In a conference of directors of diverse research centers at a single research university we found that the challenges facing…

Interdisciplinary research centers provide an important part of the university's response to the shifting programmatic needs of our society. (Author)

Some of the presumed advantages that research centers and institutes have over the individual investigator are: (1) the ability to study large and/or long-range problems; (2) increased interaction with multidisciplinary colleagues; (3) the development of new and improved instrumentation; (4) their potential role in communications and…

The Transportation Training and Research Center of the Polytechnic Institute of New York is discussed, along with some issues that must be considered when interdisciplinary research is to be performed at an academic institution. (BB)

Describes the offerings of a multidisciplinary research center, the Monell Chemical Senses Center, and highlights the advantages and disadvantages of fellowships in such a setting. (JOW)