// NATURE NEWS — SPAZIO & SCIENZA
Why we’re setting up an institute for radically broad thinking
Alon Chen is a neuroscientist and president of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
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Patrick Cramer is a molecular biologist and president of the Max Planck Society in Munich, Germany.
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David Nirenberg is a historian and director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
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Breakthroughs happen when people from different disciplines work together. Credit: Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty
The complex questions confronting humanity demand an interdisciplinary approach. Artificial intelligence, climate change, health and disease, the global economy, migration and the future of democratic societies cannot be understood through the lens of any single discipline.
Yet, the need for a broad outlook and the free flow of ideas has become urgent just when the world is facing the headwinds of rising geopolitical tensions, shrinking financial resources and growing barriers to international academic exchange. Today, research and scholarship need more collaboration between nations, not less.
The question is whether our current research structures are adequately equipped for the task at hand. Most academic institutions are organized around departments, disciplines, funding streams and established research agendas, which are essential for organizational coherence but can constrain ideas that do not fit neatly within existing boundaries.