Transdisciplinary EU science institute needs funds urgently

“Europe’s future hinges on funding transdisciplinary scientific collaboration. But career paths, peer recognition, publication channels and the public funding of science are still mostly geared to maintain and reinforce disciplinarity.

We do not properly understand the effects of technology on the evolution of the systems on which we all depend. To take on global challenges such as climate change, growing urbanization and loss of biodiversity, we need to build a new science community that will explore common themes in natural, artificial and social systems.

The Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico, founded 25 years ago by scientists to create new sciences from combinations of the old, has changed science and technology by investigating how simple building blocks interact, from molecules to single cells to ecological systems to human communities. Singapore is developing a similar institute and so is Japan. They have caught on to the idea that today’s world needs sciences recast for the future. They are investing in it. Europe is not — at least, not enough.”

(Citaat: Vasbinder, J.W., Anderson, B., et al., – Transdisciplinary EU science institute needs funds urgently – NATURE 463 (2010) 7283, p. 876 – Open Access)