Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences (2010) / Chapter Skim
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6 Enabling Research at the Intersection: Promoting Training, Support, and Communication Across Disciplines
6 Enabling Research at the Intersection: Promoting Training, Support, and Communication Across Disciplines
Pages 69-90
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From page 69... ...
The historically rigid department structure at universities, the programmatically isolated stove-piped nature of much federal funding, the different ways in which life science and physical science research are organized, and the largely separate spheres of communication that isolate life scientists from physical scientists serve as barriers to the multidisciplinary connections highlighted in this report. Intentionally or not, our system pits one scientific area against another in competition for a limited pool of resources.
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From page 70... ...
The emergence of such fields is not new, as sev eral of the distinct fields now firmly established in today's universities, including molecular biology and biochemistry, have their origin in the intersection of past disciplines. Culture of Separation between the Life and Physical Sciences Conducting research at the intersection of the physical and life sciences requires bringing together not only separate disciplines but also, in many senses, separate cultures.
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From page 71... ...
In contrast, much federal support for large segments of the physical sciences, such as astrophysics and high-energy physics, goes to large facilities and programs, and those projects, unlike a typical life sciences project, almost certainly have permanent staff and involve large amounts of instrumentation and construction support. Physical scientists who participate in these large-scale research efforts also are accustomed to awarding credit to large numbers of investigators and are comfortable with scientific papers that have hundreds of authors.
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From page 72... ...
Several of the Keck Futures conferences have focused on research at the intersection of the physical and life sciences, including the 2003 meeting, "Signals, Decisions and Meaning in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Engineering"; the 2004 conference "Designing Nanostructures at the Interface Between Biomedical and Physical Systems"; and the 2008 focus, "Complex Systems." Additional information about the Keck Futures Initiative is available at http://www.keckfutures.org/ to participate over and over, resulting in steady growth of the interdisciplinary communities associated with these institutions. Workshops like these influence the research agendas of the participating scientists and play an important role in developing a common language uniting different scientific communities.
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From page 73... ...
RECOMMENDATION 1. Federal and private funding agencies should expand support for interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research and education centers.
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From page 74... ...
One manifestation of this hope would be enhanced collaboration between agencies with a greater number of joint programs than at present. Another recent report makes a similar point for realizing opportunities within the life sciences: cross-agency collabora tion is essential for supporting the needs of science and society (National Research Council, 2009)
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From page 75... ...
Such platforms inevitably require interdisciplinary teams of biological and physical scientists, engineers, and software developers, as well as a willingness to try unproven technologies. It is impossible to conceive of most federal support mechanisms taking such risks, but the committee hopes that the federal government will devote at least a small portion of its funds to potentially transformative research at the intersection of the physical and life sciences.
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From page 76... ...
What new models are needed to support research that spans funding programs and agency boundaries? Current support mechanisms for interdisciplinary work require that research proposals be submitted to specific funding agencies and often require acknowledg ing when simultaneous submissions are being made to other funding agencies.
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From page 77... ...
In particular, OSTP and OMB should work with federal science agencies to establish standing mechanisms that facilitate the funding of interagency programs and coordinate the application and review procedures for such joint programs. Moreover, the National Science and Technology Council should establish a standing interagency working group on multidisciplinary research within its Committee on Science, with focus on the intersection of the physical and life sciences.
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From page 78... ...
Following the model of the NPGI (see Box 6-3) , the interdisciplinary working group on multidisciplinary research should begin by identifying all of the agencies with an interest in research at the physical and life sciences and overcoming the barriers to multidisciplinary connections pointed out in this report.
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From page 79... ...
. ARISE also recommended that funding mechanisms and review processes should "nurture, rather than inhibit, potentially transformative research" by tweaking review criteria, providing more flexibility and resources for agency program managers to support exploratory projects, and by establishing interdisciplinary review panels to consider high-risk research proposals across fields.
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From page 80... ...
Some of this multidisciplinary and interdisci plinary work now is supported in a dedicated facility HHMI recently established known as the Janelia Farm Research Campus (see Box 6-4)
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From page 81... ...
The critical need, at this time, is to break down the administrative barriers that prevent scientists from assembling in the most effective way to secure extramural funding and in conducting research. The committee also recommends that federal and private funding agencies explicitly support potentially transformative research.
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From page 82... ...
Such courses can also provide students with a model of how scientists and mathematicians approach problems, demonstrating the relevance of multidisciplinary approaches and the need for mathematical sophistication. Enabling Interdisciplinary Research Starting at the undergraduate Level Enhanced quantitative training for biologists is an important first step in fos tering researchers who can work at this intersection, but it is only one step.
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From page 83... ...
An alternative approach, which is harder to establish but probably would have a more lasting impact, is to integrate applications, examples, and problems from other disciplines into core courses to increase relevance. For example, quantitative aspects could be given more emphasis in existing biology courses and materials from the life sciences could be incorporated into existing physical science and mathematics classes.
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From page 84... ...
RECOMMENDATION 5. At the undergraduate level: • universities should establish science curriculum committees that include both life scientists and physical scientists to coordinate curricula between science departments and to plan introductory courses that prepare both those who would major in the life sciences and those who would enter the physical sciences.
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From page 85... ...
Ensuring their greater involvement in research across disciplinary boundaries and regular interaction with scientists from a variety of disciplines will make them comfortable with multidisciplinary research early in their careers. As one example of supporting graduate training in emerging interdisciplinary fields, HHMI has partnered with the NIH to establish the Interfaces Initiative, which provides training grants to institutions to develop interdisciplinary graduate programs (see Box 6-6)
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From page 86... ...
The committee sees value in encouraging those who have received a doctorate in a traditional discipline, not just scientists training in interdisciplinary gradu ate programs, to consider applying their knowledge to research questions at the intersection of the physical and life sciences, and to give them a jump start on their research careers. One prominent program in this area is the Career Awards at the Scientific Interface program of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF)
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From page 87... ...
The Mentored Quantitative Research Career Development Award (K25) from the NIBIB supports scientists and engineers with little or no experience in medicine or the life sciences to develop the relevant research skills that will allow them to conduct basic or clinical biomedical imaging or bioengineering research.
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From page 88... ...
Keck Foundation, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation Fellowships for Science and Engineering, the Beckman Young Investigator Program from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the Pew Scholars Program in Biomedical Sciences from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Searle Scholars Program from the Kinship Foundation, the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation Scholar Award, the Sloan Research Fellowships, the McKnight Scholar Awards from the McKnight Endowment Fund for Neuroscience, and the Klingenstein Fellowship Awards from the Esther A and Joseph Klingenstein Fund.
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From page 89... ...
National Research Council, 2008a. Achievements of the National Plant Genome Initiative and New Horizons in Plant Biology.
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