Umeå University has around 25 centers that serve to develop research, education or cooperation across subjects or faculties, creating added value that cannot be achieved within the framework of the regular line organisation.
There are also more than 15 graduate schools which provide important structure and transdisciplinary arenas for doctoral education.
Frank Dignum is the Director of the new Centre for Transdisciplinary AI (TAIGA) and Keith Larson is the new Director of the Arctic Centre (Arcum).
As leaders of two pronouncedly transdisciplinary centers, the two directors recently connected and started to explore how their centres might benefit from collaborating with each other.
Limited collaboration despite an interdisciplinary purpose
What Frank Dignum and Keith Larson have found is that the need for collaboration and networking is much broader.
"All the centres within Umeå University are interdisciplinary by definition. But there is a tendency to look at them one centre at the time", says Frank Dignum.
"Centers and graduate schools work under similar conditions and face similar challenges. Despite this, coordination and exchange is limited. This is something we want to change", he says.
Inviting other centres and graduate schools to a collaboration day in October
To address these challenges and create an arena for networking between centres and graduate schools, Arcum and TAIGA have decided to arrange a workshop day in the autumn. Representatives from all centres and graduate schools will be invited to share their experiences and ideas.
"With this day we want to learn more about the common opportunities and challenges that centres are facing, and where we can find synergies", says Frank Dignum.
As an example of areas to explore, he mentions the financial aspects of running a centre:
"Knowing how to move forward while following the budgetary framework and administrative procedures can be challenging when you are working across different departments and even different faculties. Sometimes one centre has found a better solution that others can learn from and emulate" says Frank Dignum.
University Management is monitoring the initiative with interest
The collaboration day is scheduled to take place on 6 October, registration will open in August. The University Management through Deputy Vice Chancellor Dieter Müller have decided to sponsor the event.
Dieter Müller says that he welcomes the initiative to bring different parts of the organization together, and he is looking forward to hearing the results of these discussions.
"Many of today's challenges are complex, and it is only through collecting knowledge and perspectives from many different disciplines that we can approach and develop new solutions. In the end, this is the basis of a University where gathering different disciplines at one place is seen as a defining trait. This is something that can be leveraged both within research and education."