Interdisciplinary Research Projects: Six Lessons from a Family Business-Industry 4.0 Project

Interest in interdisciplinary research has drastically increased in recent years as societal problems require more and more heterogeneous competences and research institutions seek greater long-term impact and more socio-economic implications. Interdisciplinary projects, while combining specific expertise, generate many opportunities and challenges, resulting greater risks. Thus, interdisciplinary research offers a high-risk, high-reward scenario; and currently a disproportionality low amount of attention has been paid to the interdisciplinary research process. In our article, we aim to reflect on our interdisciplinary research project and provide specific guidelines on how to conduct interdisciplinary research projects and overcome potential issues that may arise along the project, increasing the chances of success. Our reflection is based upon our project at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano involving the two disciplines of engineering/technology and management. We demystify the interdisciplinary research process and summarize what we have learned in 6 lessons, each one referred to a different stage of the process. The research offers practical implications in useful advice for interdisciplinary researchers at every level (i.e., Master students, PhD students, early researchers, Professors, and the overall academic community).