Interdisciplinary Research Enabling Initiative

Collaboration to enable collaboration

The Interdisciplinary Research Enabling Initiative is a collaborative effort among a variety of Ohio State entities to support and advance interdisciplinary science, scholarship and creative expression that addresses pressing societal challenges. Partners provide a combination of funding, facilities, staff support and other in-kind resources for research pilots and extramural proposal development, postdoctoral fellows, workshops and other convening activities, and more.

The initiative's cooperative approach grew from an innovative collaboration in 2020 by TDAI; the Center for Clinical and Translational Science led by Rebecca Jackson, MD; and the College of Medicine Department of Biomedical Informatics that combined resources to award grants to five research teams despite pandemic-related budget constraints.

“This effort is a coming together of partners that is only possible at Ohio State, to enable transformational work that only our community can do,” said TDAI Faculty Director Tanya Berger-Wolf, PhD, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering; Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology; and Electrical and Computer Engineering. “It is all manner of helping people to connect across disciplines and utilize resources to create data-enabled solutions for the greater good."