This week, we continue our exploration of the report Graduate Education: The Backbone of American Competitiveness and Innovation, by the Council of Graduate Schools' Advisory Committee on Graduate Education and American Competitiveness. Our latest article concentrates on the need for interdisciplinary research preparation and education and how they influence competitiveness. The report suggests that interdisciplinary research and education foster creation and innovation.
Graduate Research Innovation The third key assumption made by the Council of Graduate Schools' report is that interdisciplinary graduate programs are too few, and that they can be a key factor in the nation's move toward competitiveness and innovation. Many problems in this world involve solutions that span several disciplines, and more and more universities are partnering with corporations, industry and the government to come up with those solutions.
Through interdisciplinary research, universities can tackle real-world problems by breaking down the barriers between different disciplines. And by partnering with outside organizations and institutions, graduate students are able to see their research applied to real-life situations. The report states that the United States needs more of such efforts in order to remain as competitive as in the past.
One program cited by the report is the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education Research Traineeship (IGERT), which outlines how to integrate research and education. IGERT also encourages university research programs to link up with other university departments as well as outside institutions. The program is designed to train scientists and engineers to operate in other disciplines separate from the discipline in which they specialize. These trained scientists and engineers can then lend their strengths to and become leaders in other academic fields.
When educators are crossed-trained in several disciplines, according to the report, students can understand the mixture of scientific, technical, business, social, ethical and policy elements of the problems we face as a society. Students who study across the disciplines become better, more informed leaders both academically and non-academically.
The federal government also offers the Interdisciplinary Research Awards, created by the National Institutes of Health. These awards are designed to encourage the leadership and collaborative efforts in research, and include funding for training scientists in other disciplines, planning future conferences on collaboration and building special interdisciplinary centers in which scientists can conduct their research.
Creating Interdisciplinary Programs Even with the efforts that are currently underway, the report calls for universities, business leaders and policymakers to recognize the need for interdisciplinary research programs and their implementation. While the report states that the nation must show an increase in its interdisciplinary graduate education programs, it also recommends upholding the quality of the individual, core disciplines themselves.
The report raises the concern that universities may be, without knowing it, rewarding only the single discipline studies. The suggestion is that universities and federal funding organizations work together to create better rewards systems for interdisciplinary research. Universities can help by budgeting for links between graduate requirements and interdisciplinary research.
Business leaders should seek out employees who graduated from interdisciplinary programs, according to the report. They should also forge a relationship with universities through which the business sector can communicate what it is looking for in new employees, so universities can prepare students accordingly.
From a policymaker perspective, the report states that programs like the IGERT and the Interdisciplinary Research Awards should be expanded, and that the federal government should set aside more funding for interdisciplinary research. The report also suggests tax credits be awarded to employers that encourage them to get involved in the lifelong learning of current scientists and engineers.
The more connections that can be made across the different disciplines of study, the better-prepared our workforce will be for the global economy. Much of the nation's finest research is conducted in university graduate programs. With all of the emphasis on the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas, it is important that elements of each discipline are integrated with the research being conducted by graduate students in the country.