Vol. 28, No. 1, January 2014 / 1 Copyright © 2014, New Forums Press, Inc., P.O. Box 876, Stillwater, OK 74076. All Rights Reserved. Promoting Interdisciplinary Research among Faculty Elena Novak Weinan Zhao Robert A. Reiser Western Kentucky University Florida State University Florida State University With the growing recognition of the importance of interdisciplinary research, many faculty have increased their efforts to form interdisciplinary research teams. Oftentimes, attempts to put together such teams are hampered because faculty have a limited picture of the research interests and expertise of their colleagues. This paper reports on three major initiatives supported by the Ofice of Research in the College of Education at Florida State University aiming at increasing interdisciplinary research among faculty members, namely the design and implementation of (1) a college-wide faculty research interests/expertise database, (2) a college-level research grant program, and (3) a multi-college research conference. In recent years, federal and state agencies, in attempts to improve student learning in schools and universities, especially in mathematics and science, have often focused their grant-giving activities in support of interdisciplinary research efforts. Interdisciplinary research encourages “researchers in different disciplines to meet at the interfaces and frontiers of those disciplines and even to cross frontiers to form new disciplines” (National Academies, 2005, p.16). With the increasing competition in obtaining research funding, research- ers and universities recognize the need of building interdisciplinary research teams in order to develop new ideas and promote innovative research (Dodson, Guan, Fernyhough, Mir, Bucci, McFarland, et al., 2010). In fact, sustaining interdisciplinary activities is one of the biggest challenges of the 21 st century universities (Frodeman, 2010). Providing a continued support and establishing interdisciplinary programs with clear long term goals can greatly facilitate the sustainability of the interdisciplinary knowledge production. The importance of interdisciplinary research and education has been extensively discussed in the literature (Dodson et al., 2010; Metzger & Zare, 1999). Many of the most important breakthroughs in science and emerging ields of research such as biosciences and nanosciences were possible due to collaborative efforts of researchers from different disciplines. The even more increasing demands for innovations that improve hu- man well-being position interdisciplinary research in the front of future research (Derrick, Falk-krzesinski, Roberts, Olson, & Writer, 2011). The recent emphasis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to promote interdisciplinary research further illustrates that the future of research lies in the active exchange of ideas, concepts, and methods from various disciplines. The vast majority of the literature on interdis- ciplinary research focuses on various programs and collaboration efforts in the ield of science. At the same time, extremely little attention has been paid to interdis- ciplinary research in the social and behavioral sciences ield (King, Currie, Smith, Servais, & McDougall, 2008; Raasch, Lee, Spaeth, & Herstatt, 2013). Particularly scarce is literature on interdisciplinary collaborations or programs that involve researchers in the ield of educa- tion. This paucity of literature is somewhat very sur- prising, given the fact that leading grant agencies such as NSF and IES are actively seeking interdisciplinary research intended to promote STEM education, which naturally involves collaborations between the ields of science and education. While interdisciplinary research has been promot- ed by internal funding programs at some universities (Sa, 2008), most universities have perceived interdisci- plinarity as a trend, a fashion rather than a fundamental reform (Rhoten, 2004; van Rijnsoever & Hessels, 2011). According to Rhoten, this “lack of systemic implementa- tion” at the institutional level is the primary cause for the scarce evidence of interdisciplinary research activities. This “lack of systemic implementation” suggests a lack of interdisciplinary culture. Indeed, many re- searchers have strong preferences toward disciplinary research and cultures (Whitley, 2000). This preference must be overcome in order for universities to create an interdisciplinary culture that nurtures and supports cross-departmental efforts. In order to address this problem, institutional leaders can create circumstances,