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The spread of e-mail in the late 1980s is a useful metaphor for recent
changes in academic research.
At the same time that faculty members began communicating via the
computers in their individual offices, the merger of individual specialties
into large collaborative projects became the key to successful research.
And of late, information technology (IT) has stopped being just a metaphor
for the route to successful, well-funded research.
Now IT itself is really where the money is.
A program announced by the National Science Foundation this past
September, "Information Technology Research," exemplifies the opportunities
offered by interdisciplinary research with an IT focus.
The program emphasizes "fundamental research in information technology ...
particularly research spanning information technology and scientific
applications, and in the area of social, ethical, and work force
issues."
Translation: There is no area of contemporary life untouched by computers,
and every resulting change in how people live or work poses a host of
intellectual questions.
The NSF now is preparing to put up money to answer those questions.
"Although the entire NSF budget is up 3 percent for the year 2000, the
budget for multidisciplinary, information technology opportunities is up more
than 40 percent," said Teri Prince of the Proposal Development Initiative
(PDI).
"This increased commitment to IT on the part of the National Science
Foundation clearly reflects multidisciplinary IT research's importance."
It's a natural convergence of two trends: the rise of multidisciplinary
research in academe and the proliferation of information technologies.
"The words `interdisciplinary' and `multidisciplinary' are appearing with
increasing frequency in program announcements and requests for applications,"
said GrantSource Librarian Jim Rosinia. The GrantSource Library is Carolina's
resource for information on research funding and fellowships.
"I think it's safe to say that, thanks to developments in information
technology, types of collaborative work are now possible that would have been
difficult, if not impossible, a short time ago," Rosinia said.
Prince sees the trend in equally pragmatic terms.
"Information technology can be what connects different disciplines,"
Prince said. "It gives us something to focus on ... a way for individual
faculty with individual expertise to work together."
It's a natural approach for someone who works at PDI, an office that
essentially serves as in-house consultants for University faculty researchers,
working with them to match their research proposals to the right grants and
foundations.
Rosinia's emphasis on IT as a means of communication is equally natural,
given the way IT has altered work at the GrantSource Library.
Rosinia noted that online tools such as the Community of Science Faculty
Expertise Database with its customized funding alerts and the GrantSource
Library's own Faculty Profile System make it "easier than ever to identify
who's interested in what."
For more information on use of the GrantSource Library to research funding
opportunities, contact Rosinia at jim_rosinia@unc.edu
For more information on PDI and to discuss information technology funding
opportunities, contact Educational Technologies Consultant Teri Prince at
teri_prince@unc.edu
Technology & You is sponsored by the Technology in Context
Consortium (http://www.unc.edu/faculty/tic)
Writer: Kevin O'Kelly
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