Researchers at the University of North Texas will use funds provided by the university and a $400,000 supplemental grant from the National Science Foundation for a new center that will study research.

As the use of multi-faceted research becomes more popular and the free flow of information expands, combining fields of study in higher education is necessary, said Dr. Robert Frodeman, the director of the new Center for the Study of Interdisciplinarity.

Frodeman, a UNT professor of philosophy and religion studies, said out of the hundreds of interdisciplinary programs across the nation, this center is the first one to research the best way to conduct interdisciplinary research.

“It’s actually rather amazing, it’s a coup for the university to make these claims,” Frodeman said. “Remarkably, there is no center to stand back and study the nature of interdisciplinary [research] and that’s what we’re doing here.”

Breaking down knowledge into disciplines goes back to Plato and Aristotle, he said, making learning clear and efficient. But life isn’t orderly and has become tangled with time, he added.

“The world doesn’t have disciplines,” Frodeman said. “It has problems, not disciplines. The world has problems; academia has disciplines.”

In using the example of homelessness, he said, there are ethical, political and economic components of the overall problem that need to be unraveled to create a solution — something one discipline could not do on its own.

And the associate director of the center, Dr. J. Britt Holbrook, agrees.

“Societal problems don’t necessarily fit well within a certain discipline,” said Holbrook, also a philosophy and religion studies professor. “Agencies are increasingly being pressured to fund relevant research. Inter­disciplinary approaches make the research more relevant.”

As interdisciplinary programs mushroom up across the nation, Frodeman said, there is a better way to learn from other universities by studying their interdisciplinary research programs.

“For environmental ethics, how do you blend science and ethics? We found there was no best practice and that’s what led us to create the center,” he said.

As logic shifts from separate disciplines to interdisciplinary study — it’s all about keeping academia practical and useful in both the public and private sector.

“This isn’t like falling off a truck; this is hard to do,” he said. “We need to study how it’s done and come up with the best practices. This is not primarily an exercise in theory; it’s not just another think tank. This will lead to improved education and research.”

CANDACE CARLISLE can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is ccarlisle@dentonrc.com .