E
NVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS are largely caused by mankind and its way of managing environmental and natural resources. If we are to have a chance of dealing with these problems, we must use a variety of approaches. Technology and natural sciences must be combined with social sciences and the humanities. This is the insight that resulted in the formation of the Tema Institute at Linköping in the beginning of the 1980s. Anna Ledin writes in this issue of Sustainability about this historic event and the difficulties that these pioneers in interdisciplinary research experienced. She also describes the investments Formas is making at present in interdisciplinary research.
How to get researchers from different disciplines to collaborate? This is an important issue in interdisciplinary research. There are three steps that must be taken,writes Johan Kleman of the Bert Colin Center. In step 1, contact must be established and meetings arranged where people are exposed to one another's research. Step 2 creates contact among the researchers to increase their interest in collaboration, and, finally, in Step 3, joint projects must be defined, resources allocated and concrete work started as quickly as possible.
What does your workplace look like? Its design has greater significance than you might think. In an interdisciplinary project, researchers from medicine, psychology, architecture and management have joined up and come to the conclusion that having one's own room is best for health and job satisfaction. Working in an open plan office of medium size receives the lowest rating.
Read also how early exposure to environmental toxicants during the foetal and neonatal period increases susceptibility to chemicals later in life.