We use this quote by Kuhn, (1962) as the backdrop for the relevance and need of interdisciplinary research in making science work for society through a two‐way flow of knowledge between science and society. Real world problems are complex and attempts of any one discipline to address these problems result in solutions that are either insufficient or not adaptable to real world situations (IOM, 2000a). Research seeking real world solutions for real world problems need to be based on an interdisciplinary perspective, with multiple disciplines complementing and contributing in completing the jig saw puzzle (Steyaert and Jiggins 2007; Ravetz 2006; Verran 2002, Jeffrey, 2003). Many ground breaking advances in science and technology, like the discovery of the DNA structure and development of MRI and GPS techniques, have been achieved from combining results from fields once thought to be unrelated. A survey conducted in 1980, by Sigma Xi‐ The Scientific
Research Committee among its members about the need for interdisciplinary research funding for scientific problems that do not fit within arbitrary disciplinary structures, show 75 percent of the respondents reporting they either ‘agreed’ or ‘agreed emphatically’ (IOM, 2000b). But despite this agreement, traditionally, there has been a persistent barrier to interdisciplinary research from the scientific community (Dusseldorp and Wigboldus, 1994), even when all of the complementing disciplines fall in the realm of technical sciences. These barriers to interdisciplinary research collaborations ranges from being attitudinal barriers at the individual level to shared fear across the scientific community of research being graded second rate when it is not dealt with from within one disciplinary boundary. This is
expressed by Paul Smolensky (IOM, 2000b) when he says that, ‘disciplines have been able to investigate a given subject in depth. But when research bridges disciplines and this same depth cannot be attained, the quality of the research is perceived as poor’i. While this has been the case of interdisciplinary research between disciplines within broad disciplinary boundaries like technical sciences and social sciences, research collaborations between them has been a still greater rarity. According to Bruce et al., (2004) who studied interdisciplinary projects with the aim of bringing about policy recommendations for the support and management of interdisciplinary research, there have been very few studies where technical sciences and social sciences collaborate.