CCC is excited to see how our latest best-practice documents on interdisciplinary research for Funders, Researchers, and Organizational Leaders echo—and amplify—the strategic recommendations from the recent National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s (NASEM) report on The Science and Practice of Team Science. Below, we enumerate several recommendations presented in both sets of resources.   1. Seed Funding & Early Stage Support NASEM emphasizes the importance of pilot grants and flexible budgeting for early-stage interdisciplinary work. CRA/CCC’s Best Practices for Funders document mirrors this, recommending dedicated seed-stage funding, travel grants, and support for team-building workshops to kickstart cross-disciplinary collaboration. 2. Structural & Budgetary Flexibility NASEM urges institutions to adapt budgeting, […]

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) recently released a memorandum to federal agencies to offer guidance on implementing the recent executive order on “Restoring Gold Standard Science”. The memo, authored by OSTP Director Michael Kratsios, offered nine key tenets for conducting scientific research, one of which was focused on “Collaborative and Interdisciplinary” research. Interdisciplinary research, the memo says, is “vital for generating new knowledge, as it fosters synergy, leverages complementary skills, and promotes the synthesis of ideas to raise new questions and tackle multifaceted problems that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.” The memo directed agencies to prioritize this type of interdisciplinary research, through improved collaboration between agencies […]

  Today marks a significant step forward in fostering groundbreaking interdisciplinary collaborations within the computing research community. The Computing Research Association (CRA) and CRA’s Computing Community Consortium (CCC) are proud to announce the release of a crucial new document: Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Computing Research: Best Practices for Organizational Leadership. For years, it has been widely acknowledged that computing research holds immense potential to address society’s most complex challenges. However, unlocking this potential through large-scale societal impact hinges on effective interdisciplinary collaborations. Despite decades of research into optimal interdisciplinary practices, researchers continue to face significant hurdles. This new document directly confronts these challenges, offering actionable recommendations for leaders across research sectors.   […]

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is very pleased to announce the release of the final report in the workshop series on enabling research collaborations between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Operations Research (OR) experts. This workshop series, first proposed in 2020, recognized the significant progress made in Artificial Intelligence research in recent years, especially in areas such as machine learning. However, it also noted the advances in optimization and decision-making made within AI, areas where the deep expertise of Operations Research is invaluable. Recognizing the complementary strengths of these two fields and the potential for significant societal impact through their synergy, the workshop series aimed to bridge this gap.   “From […]

  Interdisciplinary research in computing is vital for addressing complex societal challenges. However, despite its importance, fostering successful interdisciplinary collaborations remains a significant challenge. The Computing Research Association (CRA) and its Computing Community Consortium (CCC) gathered insights from 40 experts across academia, industry, and government through a series of roundtable discussions to identify challenges in interdisciplinary research. The results of these discussions are being published in a series of best practices documents. The first, published in July 2024, recommended best practices for researchers collaborating on interdisciplinary teams. This second paper of the series focuses on how these collaborations can be better supported by funders, including government agencies, industry, philanthropic donors, […]

Quantum computing has captured the public’s attention due to its incredible theoretical applications, but the intensely complicated underlying physics make it difficult for even computing experts in other fields to understand. Computing researchers in other disciplines, however, have valuable knowledge to aid in the development of quantum computers. “To increase momentum in quantum system progress, we must lower the barrier to entry”, says Kaitlin N. Smith, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University. “Scientists shouldn’t be required to have an expert-level understanding of quantum mechanics to contribute their skill set to quantum computing”. Though quantum computers operate very differently from classical computers, some of the approaches used in classical […]