Borrego, Maura; Boden, Daniel; Pietrocola, David; Stoel, Carol F.; Boone, Richard D.; Ramasubramanian, Melur K.; O'Rourke, Michael; Crowley, Stephen; Eigenbrode, Sanford D.; Wulfhorst, J. D.
description
Since 1998, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has been funding Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) grants to institutions to create graduate traineeships around an interdisciplinary theme. One goal of this program has been to catalyze cultural change in institutions to support interdisciplinary collaboration. In this chapter, we describe analysis of interviews with faculty members and administrators at two institutions with at least four IGERT grants. A number of structural and policy changes were reported to support interdisciplinary research and graduate education, including new courses and changes to university-level graduate student policies. Multiple IGERT grants to a single institution particularly helped create a community of advocates for interdisciplinary education and research that effected institution-level policy changes through communication with administrators. In sum, IGERT has been an influential model for interdisciplinary education and research at U.S. universities, particularly as a driver for organizational changes to foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Additionally, interdisciplinary graduate traineeship funding initiatives have been effective at changing faculty attitudes and policies related to hiring, workload, and promotion and tenure.
