Blueprints for interdisciplinary science in universities

20 November 2025
Washington, DC, US

We are excited to bring the THE Interdisciplinary Science Forum to Washington, DC this year. The event will spotlight the strategies, structures and mindsets required to embed interdisciplinarity into the core of academia across institution types, leadership levels and global contexts.

We will convene university leaders, institute directors, researchers, funders and policymakers to rethink governance and funding models and explore how to leverage AI as a cross-cutting tool in leadership.

The event will offer practical insights into how universities can design future-ready research ecosystems that break down silos and promote collaboration at scale.

The THE Interdisciplinary Science Rankings are the first effort of its kind to measure universities’ contributions and commitment to interdisciplinary science. The event will feature the exclusive reveal of the 2026 edition, and an in-depth masterclass from THE’s data team with detailed analysis and insight into the key findings, trends and stories from the data.

100+

attendees

30+

speakers

hours of content

Agenda themes

Enabling interdisciplinarity through practical frameworks and infrastructure

Learning from institutional diversity and tailoring approaches across scales

Leadership for interdisciplinarity in the age of AI

Speakers include

Edward Balleisen

Senior Vice-Provost for Interdisciplinary Programmes and Initiatives

Duke University

Harold Collard

Vice-Chancellor of Research

The University of California, San Francisco

Anika Haverig

Managing Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Research

Bielefeld University

Donald Ingber

Founding Director, Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

Harvard University

Karin Markides

President and Chief Executive Officer

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Katherine Yelick

Vice-Chancellor of Research

The University of California, Berkeley

Highlights from the 2024 event

Apply to attend

Please note that this is an invitation-only event. If you would like to attend, please complete the form via the link below and we will be in touch shortly to let you know if your application has been successful.

If you have any questions, please email events@timeshighereducation.com.

Resources

Research universities form new mission group to ‘grow visibility’

Ten UK universities join to find a ‘collective voice’ away from the Russell Group. ResearchPlus brings together research-focused universities that are currently under-represented in the national conversation to help deliver the UK’s research and innovation agenda.

Read now

THE Interdisciplinary Science Rankings 2025: Methodology

Interdisciplinary scientific research holds the promise of unlocking lessons from multiple academic disciplines to solve global challenges. These rankings measure global universities’ contributions and commitment to interdisciplinary science. Here, we explain how we arrived at the results.

Read now

THE podcast: Why we need interdisciplinarity in teaching and research

Interdisciplinary thinking is crucial to addressing complex questions, but how should it work in practice? Two leading academic proponents of cross-disciplinary working draw on their groundbreaking scholarship to explain.

Listen now

Partners

Organised by

In association with

Get involved

Speak

Our high-quality speakers are essential to ensuring our events engage audiences and provide relevant, up-to-date and innovative content for our delegates. Submit a speaker application.

Sponsor

Strategically engage with your target audience by exposing your brand, industry knowledge and thought leadership to the global higher education community. Explore available opportunities.

Host

Our events gather outstanding thought leaders to learn, network, and share knowledge and experience. Attendees share best practice and innovation in the development of world-class universities. Find out more.