The Socio-Cognitive Map of Dutch Coastal Defense Research: Report 6.
In this study we used the term cross-disciplinarity as a generic term for different types of research that combine, integrate or transgress knowledge, methods or concepts from different disciplinary origin. We made a distinction between three different types of cross-disciplinary research: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.
It is widely recognized that the disciplinary organization of the science system can impede the development of socially and policy relevant research. Implicitly this recognition underpins the many calls for interdisciplinary research, which are found nowadays in research programmes which aim for social and policy relevancy. It should be noted however that there is not a one-to-one correlation between interdisciplinary research and social and policy relevant research. Rather, there is interdisciplinary research that is not immediately socially and policy relevant and the other way around, there is policy relevant research which is not interdisciplinary. Research programmes that aim for social relevant research by stimulating interdisciplinary research often fail. One of the reasons for this failure, is that concepts like interdisciplinary research and the relation between interdisciplinary research and social and policy relevancy are poorly defined and understood.
