Multidisciplinary research essential: Chancellor Wayamba University
View(s):Research should not be individualistic but should be multidisciplinary said Emeritus Professor Tuley de Silva, Chancellor of the Wayamba University.
He said the role of research in a university in Sri Lanka for the 21st century should be to make it a vital centre of competence to deal with social challenges and drive economic growth.
“This requires the administrators to ensure a stable environment of funding for long-term strategic partnerships, provide the university the autonomy to operate effectively and form strong partnerships and strive for excellence as companies want to work with the best,” he said.
Professor de Silva was delivering the keynote address at the international research sessions of the Peradeniya University where nearly 504 research papers were presented.
The 1995 Green Paper on innovation defines it “as the renewal and enlargement of the range of products and services and associated markets, the establishment of new methods of production, supply and distribution, the introduction of changes in management, work organisation, and the working conditions and skills of the workforce”.
The sessions were held at the Allied Health Science faculty presided by Chancellor Kingsley M. de Silva of the University of Peradeniya in association with the Vice Chancellor of the University Professor Upul B. Disssanayake, Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Lakshman Wijeweera and the Dean of the Faculty Professor Mahinda Wickremaratne.
Professor Tuley de Silva said that he wished to share his experiences of the past fifty years in varied capacities as a researcher, development researcher, project proposal writer and principal investigator, national and international project manager, project proposal reviewer and evaluator, research paper referee of journals, postgraduate thesis examiner and research and development consultant so that fellow scientists who were gathered could benefit, in order to be partners in the development process to contribute to national development.
Most of these comments would be from the biological sciences perspective he said as a contributor to research and development of herbal health care products even today. The scientific process can be aimed at advancing or adding to the present body of knowledge, development of new products and services, evaluation, verification of effectiveness or validity of scientific findings and most importantly finding solutions to new problems in the fast changing world.
Presently Professor de Silva said contributions from most research projects are limited to adding or in a very few instances advancing the present scientific knowledge base. This has not resulted in innovating products or services aimed at national economic development. Of course there are a few significant contributions in some fields. He said that it is his duty to point out some reasons for this state of affairs in the country so that more and more researchers and research administrators could initiate action or at least seriously consider these and plan more productive research and development.
“One of the most frequently encountered drawbacks of research proposals is a lack of proper selection of the problem or question and less time being allocated to thinking about the project to be undertaken including the real objectives. Questions such as would the project be interesting and worthwhile, will the findings be of interest to others, can I justify undertaking this research in terms of outcomes (significant contribution to knowledge or solutions or development), funding and time requirements, do I have sufficient expertise and experience to undertake the project if not what will be the best multidisciplinary team to undertake the project. What obstacles may arise if the execution is not properly thought-out. Then a detailed plan of the project including the methodological approach and theoretical framework, activities to achieve the outputs or outcomes have to be worked out. The roles of co-investigators have to be clearly defined. Bear with me that these observations are not for all proposals as there are exceptions with excellent proposals.”
Another very important aspect of the proposal is the title of the project. It has to be related to immediate outcomes or goals and not those that require many more years of research and development. Most titles highlight the ultimate end solution such as development of a drug from a plant resource. This indicates the lack of actual time, funds and work needed for such a solution.
It is strange that many projects have activities related to multidisciplinary inputs. Sometimes the required know-how cannot be learnt as expert experiences are required. This is becoming an alarming tendency as some principal investigators do not want to even share the project proposal with others whom they could work with. This habit of compartmentalisation and self-centred attitude has to be overcome if we are to progress in development. This brings us to the universally accepted norm of advantages of multidisciplinary research. When you consider a project the number of distinct topics to be studied can be large and varied and hence would need expertise outside your discipline. Specialists’ specific approach and knowledge will be a leading advantage to solving problems proposed. There will be synergistic outcomes due to team work with others. One has to open opportunities to complementary expertise outside of your comfort zone and team up with those you feel comfortable to work with so as to increase chances for high impact research findings.
If the problem is to find a new product, it is advisable to join with a business or industry seeking such findings. This can be termed business driven multidisciplinary research.
By L.B.Senaratne