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The value of trans-disciplinary work has been demonstrated in a number of areas, proving its capacity for driving innovation. In fact, one good definition of “creativity” is simply putting together two or more things that would ordinarily remain apart. Numerous academic centers are explicitly inter- or trans-disciplinary. Stanford, for example, is attempting to incentivize such research with a dedicated grant program; Bio-X (interdisciplinary research related to biology and medicine, including engineering, computer science, physics, chemistry, and other fields); and the d.school (for multidisciplinary innovation); note that normal academic incentives and pressures serve to compartmentalize disciplines into hyperspecialized silos. While SFIP is in the vanguard of applying trans-disciplinary techniques to practical problem solving, it is certainly not alone.
Several recent and unusual pairings bring this idea, and the general necessity of cross-sector collaboration, into sharp relief. Especially within the context of the massive and urgent changes that must be accomplished on a global scale, we may all have to learn to work with the unexpected (and even “unsuitable”) partner in order to get the job done.
For example, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate recently published Renergizing America’s Defense, which “…details steps the armed forces are taking to address their energy use and carbon emissions. Read the rest of this entry »
The Santa Fe Innovation Park is an economic development initiative for the Santa Fe region and the state of New Mexico, with significant implications for national competitiveness and our ability to solve the crucial problems confronting us as a city, region, state, nation, and global community.
Currently in its final planning and initial implementation stages, SFIP will be a creative technology park for entities working at the edge of innovation: organizations that must constantly innovate in order to succeed. It will emphasize accelerated problem-solving processes and creative collaboration, and bring together individual and institutional leaders from industry and commerce; public planning and policy; science and technology; and the design and creative fields.
Using SFIP’s uniqueprocesses and facilities, they will work together to produce practical solutions to important problems. In short, SFIP will be:
A place and a process for solving important practical problems, using trans-disciplinary collaborative techniques, supported by specialized facilities, tools, and technologies.
