Interdisciplinary research can create many scientific opportunities but may also face challenges and
barriers. X-Net’s main objective is helping interdisciplinary scientists to overcome those barriers
providing guidance and resources, particularly to early career researchers. We organised an online
workshop “Overcoming barriers to cross-disciplinary research” (6th July, 2022) with the purpose of
identifying the main obstacles of interdisciplinary research (IDR) in the UK.
The workshop incorporated a pre-workshop anonymous survey that allowed participants to identify
and share some of their personal experiences of cross-disciplinary research. The workshop then used
these experiences to find themes or challenges in common. It also allowed participants to consider,
through action learning, what specific cross-disciplinary barrier(s) they sought advice on.
The survey questionnaire was designed to focus on the opinions of individual scientists regarding the
barriers or incentives for interdisciplinary research and to receive diverse perspectives. Researchers
with early or ongoing experience in interdisciplinarity entering biomedical sciences from STEM were
approached for their opinions
