Interdisciplinary research has been called for and promoted for years (Wissenschaftsrat 2020). It is intended to contribute to solving grand challenges, such as digital transformation, through interdisciplinary collaboration (Klein 2013). Although interdisciplinary research can undeniably lead to highly innovative results (Leahey et al., 2017), the incentives and motivation for interdisciplinary research are met with strongly disciplinary evaluation standards (Blakeney et al., 2021).
The efforts of particularly skilled interdisciplinary researchers have not yet been sufficiently visible. There is further a lack of systematic evaluation of IDR to promote learning processes and support interdisciplinary career paths. Against this background and in view of the still young history and methodological challenges of research on digital transformation, we aim to develop an evaluation tool for IDR. It places particular emphasis on the process of collaboration and takes into account the perspectives of researchers at different career stages. We plan to anchor this tool in interdisciplinary institutes as a means of self-learning.
In the colloquium we will present the preliminary results of interdisciplinary group discussions on criteria of “good” interdisciplinary research on digital transformation. Together with the audience, we would like to reflect on the implication in relation to power shifts and organizing research.