JRC looks to build bridges between disciplines via methods

Future grant assessment and funding calls could push researchers to bridge disciplines via unified methods

The European Commission’s in-house research service has said agreement over methods is the best way to bridge gaps between scientists entrenched in their disciplinary silos, and suggested that future funding could be used to create this unity.

Clemens Wittwehr, a chemical safety scientist at the Commission’s Joint Research Centre, and his colleagues, suggest that funders should include “more explicit criteria” for interdisciplinarity and “bridgeability across methods” in funding calls, and in assessments of research projects.