Researchers Report Stronger Interdisciplinary Capacities by Participating in a Long-Term Cross-Disciplinary Team

While previous research has shown how cross-disciplinary research informs impactful research publications and patents, much less is known about how such work alters the capacities and subsequent investigative behaviors of researchers themselves. We address this topic with an exploratory longitudinal case study of a mid-size cross-disciplinary team funded between 2010 and 2018. With data from 12 years of surveys and interviews, we show that the researchers perceived significant changes to their collaboration practices and gains in their subsequent scientific and cross-disciplinary institutional knowledge, including public and cross-disciplinary communication abilities. These results provide information for funders of cross-disciplinary research about the potential long-term impacts of such projects on team members. As cross-disciplinary teams become more prevalent to address critical problems, these results also indicate routes for further fruitful research to better understand how membership on such teams impacts individual team members.