The second edition of the seminar develops the discussions begun on December 1993, taking as its starting point the issues and goals highlighted by the Nobel Laureates who participated in the two-day debate.
The general framework remains that of the relationship between scientific progress, economic development and the emerging ethical issues associated with such change. The participants have been asked to reflect upon the intrinsic cultural value of science and on the need for the general public to play a more active role in setting the goals and ethical limits of research and its applications, with a view to overcoming conflict and strengthening international cooperation. This scenario can not ignore the strategic importance of education nor training and the impact of changes wrought by innovation in the world of production and work.
Scientific Advance Calls for Both Disciplinary Competence and Interdisciplinary Approaches
Wednesday 7 December 1994
Direct consequences of scientific and technological progress are the emergence of new disciplines and an increasing lack of wide competence of scientists educated in narrow disciplines. In addition, generalists can often not compete at the front of research with the leaders in a particular discipline. But today's problems awaiting answers from scientific research are often of quite complex nature and can hardly be solved by reductionistic approaches followed by single disciplines. What is needed are interdisciplinary strategies with a close collaboration of several disciplines. Best success can be expected if each partner in this enterprise has solid competence in his own discipline and also possesses transdisciplinary notions on strategies and main objectives followed by the other participating disciplines.

A case study on the roots of molecular genetics and its ever increasing impacts not only on biological and medical research, but also on developments in health care, economy and social and ethical concepts can illustrate the stringent need for interdisciplinary approaches. It also points to the importance to be given to the public perception of science and the feedback of this perception to applications of acquired scientific knowledge. Interdisciplinary education in addition to a qualified disciplinary training can help to render scientific knowledge more easily accessible to members of other disciplines and to an interested general public. It can also foster the dialogue between the humanities and social, natural and engineering sciences. These contacts are a prerequisite for a healthy and widely acceptable development of technologies in the service of mankind.

Taken from the personal experience of the speaker, several initiatives to strengthen trans- and interdisciplinary education will be discussed. These include (1) the setting up of international and interdisciplinary collaboration in the education of biotechnologists at the graduate and the postgraduate levels, (2) the institutional offer of trans- and interdisciplinary education to students of any disciplinary curricula, and (3) the role of interdisciplinary research programs in environmental sciences with regard to their impacts both on the research strategies applied and on the interdisciplinary competence of the participants.

Interdisciplinary strategies play an increasing role in most professions requiring university education. It is thus an important, serious task of the universities not only to train their students in the discipline chosen, but also to offer them occasions to get familiar with interdisciplinary approaches for the solution of complex problems.


The resulting essay has been translated into Italian and published in the book Scienza e società. Dieci Nobel per il futuro. (Marsilio, Venezia 1995).