Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary are terms that are often used in the academic and research fields to describe the nature of a particular study or project. While these terms are often used interchangeably, they do have distinct differences.
Interdisciplinary refers to the integration of knowledge and perspectives from multiple disciplines in order to address a specific research question or problem. This approach involves bringing together experts from different fields to collaborate and draw on their diverse areas of expertise in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand.
For example, an interdisciplinary study might bring together researchers from the fields of biology, chemistry, and physics to examine the environmental impacts of a particular chemical. By combining their diverse knowledge and perspectives, the researchers would be able to gain a more nuanced understanding of the complex interactions between the chemical and the environment.
Multidisciplinary, on the other hand, refers to the use of multiple disciplines in a study or project, but without the explicit goal of integrating their perspectives or knowledge. In other words, multidisciplinary approaches involve bringing together experts from different fields to work on a particular issue, but without necessarily seeking to integrate their perspectives or findings.
An example of a multidisciplinary project might be a team of researchers from different fields working on a clinical trial for a new drug. While the researchers might come from a variety of disciplines, such as medicine, chemistry, and pharmacology, they might not be actively seeking to integrate their perspectives or findings in order to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of the issue.
In conclusion, while interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches both involve the use of multiple disciplines, they differ in their focus on integration. Interdisciplinary approaches aim to integrate the knowledge and perspectives of different disciplines in order to address a specific research question or problem, while multidisciplinary approaches involve the use of multiple disciplines without necessarily seeking to integrate their perspectives or findings.
