Interdisciplinary Pathways: Engaging Learners and Creating Opportunities
Call for papers
Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh
16 April 2026
This year’s Conference will focus on how interdisciplinarity can be supported, structured and created in different educational contexts, including those before and beyond higher education.
A learner’s interdisciplinary journey may start at various points and this Conference will focus on the place for interdisciplinary opportunities – including points within the curriculum as well as physical and intellectual spaces.
The focus will also consider collaborations for transdisciplinarity across disciplines and across organisational boundaries – within universities, with primary and secondary schools, with the local community or external partners.
The Conference welcomes examples of how interdisciplinary activities can impact learners through projects which transcend university or academic boundaries. Outcomes from these opportunities which might measure transferable and lifelong skills and experience are particularly welcome. Student perspectives and contributions are greatly valued within all submissions.
Conference themes
All submissions should address one or more of the following conference themes. You will be asked to identify the relevant theme(s) when submitting your application:
Pathways for Interdisciplinary Activities
This theme relates to ways in which interdisciplinarity can be introduced and extended in a learning journey, perhaps in secondary schools, in the early years of university, in short courses, or in lifelong learning. Submissions should outline or explore ways in which interdisciplinary activities and experiences can be sustained over time, including ways to identify interdisciplinary opportunities within existing curriculum as well as focused interdisciplinary events or projects. Examples of long-term interdisciplinary ventures or ways in which the interdisciplinary conversation are opened in different spaces are particularly welcome.
Spaces for Creativity in Interdisciplinarity
Making a place or carving out space for interdisciplinary opportunities can be difficult as pressures on students to achieve goals related to attainment and potential future employment become stronger. But re-defining interdisciplinary activities in terms of creativity or independent thought might provide new routes into interdisciplinary activities. If interdisciplinarity is framed in terms of ‘making something new’, this may provide a justification for students and faculty that resonates beyond the established curriculum; the ‘unique selling point’ perhaps. Contributions to this theme should include examples of how creativity and creative thought are embedded in interdisciplinary activities and ways to enhance existing interdisciplinary activities through creativity.
Collaboration to Support Interdisciplinary Opportunities
Increasingly, interdisciplinary opportunities attempt to transcend traditional boundaries, such as those between disciplines, across disciplines or between the institution and the local community. These challenge-based and experiential projects offer a focus for multi-subject considerations of complex systems, and provide a valuable connection between the university and the local community. Collaboration can also take place within campus environments, such as between faculty, academic support services and archival evidence. Contributions to this theme should highlight examples of where collaboration has worked well and provide guidance for how this might be implemented in other contexts.
Wildcard
An important development within the interdisciplinary learning and teaching arena which may not fit neatly into one of the themes above. Please make the rationale for the wildcard clear in the abstract submission.
Submission formats
The organisers invite submissions for short papers and lightning talks. We will do our best to accommodate your preferred format, but this will depend on space available within the schedule, and we may contact you to discuss an alternative format.
Short paper Presentation which follow traditional conference presentation format, though we also welcome submissions offering opportunities for interaction. These should be limited to 15 minutes to be followed by five minutes for questions.
Lightning talks should be limited to 5 minutes, and no more than 5 slides (or equivalent). Lightning talks offer a fantastic opportunity to share new ideas, capture insights gained, generate hallway conversation, and receive helpful feedback. They might:
- focus on a particular element of successful practice
- recount lessons learned
- capture an account of impact
- describe a challenge that would benefit from community feedback
- propose a collaborative project
We would particularly welcome lightning talk submissions from students, educators who are new to interdisciplinary teaching, and non-academic staff working to support interdisciplinary education (e.g., learning technologists, librarians and professional services).
Conference format
In addition to hosting conference papers and lighting talks, additional sessions which support more informal ways to share experience may be offered. These sessions will be designed by the conference organisers, but we will invite delegates to submit their ‘interdisciplinary challenges’ to shape their focus. We will ask for these when you register to attend the conference.
Our goal of encouraging active participation and dynamic exchanges means that the conference will only run as an in-person event.
Closing date for Submissions: 16 January 2026
The submission form can be found here (you may need to paste into your browser):
The submission form asks for the following details, which you may wish to have ready:
- Name and contact details of the presenter(s)
- The Type of Submission (Short Paper/Lightning Talk) and the sub-theme of the submission (Pathways for Interdisciplinary Activities/Spaces for Creativity in Interdisciplinarity/ Collaboration to Support Interdisciplinary Opportunities/Wildcard)
- Short Paper: A Title of the Submission and an Abstract of no more than 250 words
- Lightning Talk: A Title of the Submission and an Abstract of no more than 150 words
- A short biography of the presenter(s) of no more than 150 words (each)
This is the ninth Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference and information regarding previous conferences can be found at this website: https://interdisciplinaryuk.net/.
For further information please contact the conference organisers:
David Overend, Jenny Scoles and Emilie McSwiggan, Co-Chairs, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference 2026, david.overend@ed.ac.uk, jenny.scoles@ed.ac.uk and emilie.mcswiggan@ed.ac.uk.
Ida Kemp, Chair, Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conferences (UK), interdisciplinary.ac.uk@gmail.com
Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching UK 