Departments and colleges need to be able to assess the value of interdisciplinary research. The tendency now is to ignore it. We need to set up interdisciplinary research to enliven and create new disciplinary departments. Now with a big project, interdisciplinary researchers have difficulties maintaining links to their original disciplines to get feedback. Interdisciplinary research requires more time which is why more senior faculty than junior faculty get involved since well-established disciplinary routes will produce two to three times the output.
Interdisciplinary research is a career penalty for young faculty.
Business people can immediately see the practicality of interdisciplinary research but academics tend to resist. Researchers involved in interdisciplinary research should leave a paper trail by including it in their annual reviews. Increased exposure of interdisciplinary research will increase its value. Interdisciplinary graduate students are not committed to disciplinary boundaries. We need to increase cross-departmental and joint appointments and change the administrative difficulties with doing so.