Interdisciplinary doctoral research networks: enhancers and inhibitors of social capital development

ABSTRACT

Interdisciplinary research networks are increasing, with professionals encouraged to undertake research across disciplines to increase innovation, creativity and knowledge. More recently, this interdisciplinary focus is being mirrored by the establishment of interdisciplinary doctoral research networks. But do these networks work? And if so, how and why? We employ social capital theory to (a) understand the lived experiences of students in interdisciplinary doctoral programmes and (b) build programme design theory to support the development of social capital within such programmes. We present the results of 28 semi-structured interviews conducted with doctoral students from three European Union funded interdisciplinary research training networks to understand how they perceive the enhancers, inhibitors and manifestations of social capital within their networks. Key themes revolve around ‘extracting value from the interdisciplinary process’, ‘motivating students throughout the interdisciplinary programme journey’, and ‘relating to others both within and external to the programme’. We propose a framework for interdisciplinary programme design.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinarity
• doctoral education
• social capital
• interdisciplinary
• study program
• healthcare education and training

Disclosure statement

Associate Professor Tara Cusack was a co-applicant on the CHESS proposal and supervised one PhD student who participated in this study. She did not read or analyse the data from her PhD student. Dr. Threase Kessie is the Project Manager of the CATCH and CHESS Initial Training Networks.

Notes

1 Under the Marie Curie-Sklowdowska Initial Training Networks funding programme, see https://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/

2 www.chessitn.eu

3 www.catchitn.eu

4 www.teamitn.eu

Additional information

Funding

CHESS, CATCH and TEAM have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement nos. 676201, 722012 and 722561, respectively.