Research for staff & students
1st Researchers' Conference
Exploring New Territories:
Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
12 February 2009, Hilton City Hotel, Bath
Exploring New Territories - a one-day conference, organised to promote interaction and collaboration across disciplines.
Over 80 researchers from the University of Bath and other South-West Universities gathered together at the Bath Hilton Hotel for this inaugural Researchers’ Conference. Read what they had to say about the conference in our feedback section.
Invited speakers highlighted the benefits of interdisciplinary working, and workshops ran alongside the talks giving delegates the chance to learn the skills required to do it themselves.
The conference was opened by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Glynis Breakwell, who said that “having worked in an interdisciplinary way throughout my career, I would now find it boring to work in any other way! The most important thing, I’ve found, is to keep an open mind.”
There was also a poster competition which was judged, innovatively, by the delegates themselves. The winner, Phil Richardson (a part-time PhD student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering) was presented with the £100 prize by Professor Jane Millar, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research).
In her closing remarks, Professor Millar said that "Relationships are of pivotal importance in collaborations. I’m pleased that today has given you such good opportunities to start forming these relationships."
Delegates were also invited to make new connections for their research by posting their details on the ‘Collaborations Board’, and the organising team hope that some exciting new interdisciplinary research will come from the seeds sown at this event.
Delegate feedback
I came to...
- gain a clearer understanding of what collaborative/cross-disciplinary research might entail
- hear experiences of interdisciplinary research to get an idea if it is something I would like to pursue in my own career
- meet researchers from other departments with similar interests
It was worth coming because...
- (it was) very helpful, comprehensive and in-depth
- (there were) some interesting conversations and I enjoyed hearing the stories of successful/unsuccessful collaboration attempts
- I got a great idea of working across department boundaries, and heard about all the pros and cons
- I got some good ideas and I made a good link with a colleague from a different department
Now, I'm going to...
- reflect on the extent to which my own research can be viewed in a cross-disciplinary way
- think more carefully about the type of collaborations I want to establish
- continue conversations with I-SEE about a possible collaboration
- set up meetings with a number of people (and) email info on my research to those that expressed interest
I learned that...
- networking can be fun!
- it's important to keep communicating across disciplines
- (you need to have) proper project management of collaborative research projects
- successful outcomes are only as good as the team working on the project
And finally...
- this was a practical and useful conference
- all in all, (a) very worthwhile day
- excellent!