Health Beyond Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Workshops at UCL

In June 2025, the UCL Health of the Public Early Career Network (ECN) hosted two interdisciplinary workshops aimed at exploring how different disciplines understand the concept of “health” and how this can create barriers for interdisciplinary collaborations. Funded by the UCL Research Culture Seed Fund 2024/25, the workshops were led by Dr Margarita Garfias Royo with support from Marta Koch. The workshops’ goal was twofold: to identify communication barriers in interdisciplinary research and to expand the ECN’s reach across UCL.

These workshops aligned with UCL’s Research Culture Roadmap to create collaborative and inclusive research environments and address themes 3: Opportunities to collaborate and innovate and 5: Supportive and inclusive environment.

Diverse Perspectives on Health

Participants from the Faculties of Population Health Sciences, Engineering Sciences and the Built Environment engaged in interactive sessions to define “health” from their disciplinary viewpoints. Definitions ranged from clinical outcomes and service access to broader determinants like wellbeing, sustainability and equity. Despite differing terminologies and priorities, all agreed on the value of diverse insights in tackling complex health challenges.

Barriers and Solutions to Collaboration

The workshops revealed persistent barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration across individual level, departmental/discipline level, institutional level, funding-related barriers and cross-cutting issues:

• Individual Level: Time constraints and mental bandwidth, post-COVID reluctance for in-person meetings and unfamiliarity with other disciplines’ methods. Solutions included fostering informal relationships, using small grants to initiate collaboration and encouraging open dialogue.
• Departmental/Discipline Level: Siloed work environments, inconsistent terminology and scattered communication platforms. Proposed solutions included challenge-based events, shared digital and information hubs and UCL-wide social and research activities to build connections.
• Institutional Level: Academic pressures, short-term contracts and fragmented and difficult to navigate collaboration tools. Participants suggested centralising networking opportunities, automating follow-ups for funding post-grant and recognising interdisciplinary work in performance metrics.
• Funding-related barriers: Narrow project scopes, lack of flexible grants and schemes not including researcher time, which has implications for workload allocations. Solutions included increasing small grant availability, returning overheads to research teams, supporting co-produced funding applications and including non-costed FTE time in small grants.
• Cross-cutting issues discussed included complex global challenges (e.g., climate-health linkages, SDG alignment) that create measurement and coordination issues, inadequate common metrics for health and wellbeing and limited data integration and sharing across sectors. These challenges could be addressed by adopting holistic, mixed-methods approaches, using systems thinking and participatory/co-design research methods, drawing on external models like QMUL’s Flexible Research Funds and strengthening bridges between academia and external stakeholders (policy, community, practice).

Reflections and Feedback

Participants responded positively to the workshops, valuing the chance to connect across disciplines and share challenges. The informal format encouraged open discussion and some attendees initiated new collaborations or discovered initiatives like the UCL Evaluation Exchange. Suggestions for future events included improving accessibility, repeating sessions in varied venues and maintaining communication among attendees.

A Call to Action

Workshop participants identified key structural challenges that hinder interdisciplinary collaborations. For example, dispersed digital platforms, inflexible funding systems and performance models that undervalue collaboration. These barriers limit not only the sharing of knowledge but also the development of trust and shared language across disciplines. 

For UCL to remain a global leader in research addressing complex challenges like health and wellbeing, it should support collaboration by investing in the right structures, funding and culture to break down internal barriers.

UCL Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration Quick Wins

Based on participant input, here are some quick, implementable actions UCL could take to shift the culture from fragmented to integrated:

Networking & Engagement

• Themed events & socials: Hosting regular events that connect departments through shared challenges and include informal, fun activities to build relationships beyond formal settings.
• Blended research & social spaces: Combining research and social events to encourage organic conversations and relationship-building.
• Peer-led communities: Support networks or clubs led by staff to champion interdisciplinary collaboration.

Funding & Resource Allocation

• Seed grants & follow-ups: Provide small, scalable interdisciplinary seed grants with automated follow-ups to highlight further opportunities.
• Smart funding suggestions: Recommend related or complementary grants through internal systems.
• Flexible use of overheads: Return a portion of external grant overheads to research teams for discretionary use.
• Recognition & support: Use awards, metrics and case studies to highlight interdisciplinary impact, enhance ECR frameworks with mentoring and interdisciplinary examples.

Infrastructure & Platforms

• Centralised digital hub: Create a unified platform for interdisciplinary funding, networking and events.
• Improved access & discovery: Streamline SharePoint/websites and develop a searchable directory of researchers by theme or interest.

Culture & Policy

• Workload & progression: Recognise collaboration in workload models and promotion criteria and allocate time for networking as part of formal duties.
• Inclusive support: Tailor support and incentives for both permanent and non-permanent staff.
• Celebrate success: Share cross-department achievements through internal communications and showcases.