Society's new super lab: Cardiff Uni's social science research park

A new university initiative encourages creative approaches to solving some of today's hardest problems

There are increasing calls for cross-disciplinary research as a way to address society's greatest challenges. This week's Government spending review is likely to point towards more joined-up funding for research in the UK. Last week's review of Research Council funding spoke about the benefits of interdisciplinary research. Realising those benefits will require more experiments in collaborating inside and outside universities.

The Wellcome Trust recently announced 75m for transdisciplinary research on public health and the environment. Last month, Sir Mark Walport, the UK Government's Chief Scientific Adviser, wrote of the "invaluable insights" that anthropologists and other social scientists provided in tackling the Ebola crisis: