Situating and estimating interdisciplinary exchange at the University of Antwerp

At the university of Antwerp, there already exists a great diversity in IDR initiatives and institutes, both on the teaching and research side. As described in this short note, a first task consists of mapping the outcomes of these initiatives on the one hand, and situating and indicating the sites of potential exchange on the other. We do however recognize the risk of standardizing what interdisciplinarity must mean . Therefore, after this exploratory stage of mapping and indicating interdisciplinarity on different fronts, we propose to foster a co-creation model of evaluation in which we situate and co-define interdisciplinary practice together with teachers, researchers, students, and also stakeholders external to the university eco-system in order to further encourage it. The future role of research administrators and policymakers in the context of stimulating IDR at the University of Antwerp would then be one of grasping the different meanings of IDR in different contexts and building bridges between relevant actors engaged in interdisciplinary practice.