Perspectives on supervising and conducting interdisciplinary research projects at LTH

Abstract

This study has been carried out as an assignment within the Readership Course (GB_S91) at LTH (https://www.lth.se/?id=495) during the year 2021. The motivation to undertake this study was to obtain further understanding of the situation of PhD-students and supervisors that operate in an interdisciplinary research context. The focus is on the finding the positive aspects, as well as existing challenges, to comprehend how to provide future PhD students with adequate support and inclusive environments. In order to unravel what constitutes a winning strategy when supervising PhD students in an interdisciplinary environment, we have conducted in total eleven interviews, i.e. six interviews with PhD students and five interviews with supervisors active in interdisciplinary research projects at LTH. A limitation in this study is that we have only interviewed PhD students and supervisors in interdisciplinary research environments and not carried out interviews with actors in single disciplinarily research fields. This can make it hard to know if certain aspects are related to the PhD education in general or directly linked to the interdisciplinary environment. However, we still believe that this study will provide interesting perspectives and insights into how it is to be a PhD student and supervisor within an interdisciplinary research field at LTH. A general conclusion is that both PhD students and supervisors have a positive perspective towards interdisciplinary research with an emphasis on the interesting and inspirational challenging aspects. The main negative issue raised by PhD students is a confusion about which supervisors he/she should turn to for help in different situations. The supervisors on the other hand address challenges related to communication, financing, publication, and recruitment.