The sand in the gears of large-scale interdisciplinary research: uncovering bottom-up rearrangements of university infrastructure

Large-scale interdisciplinary programmes aim to tackle today’s grand societal challenges. The hope is that by pooling large amounts of funding and assembling massively interdisciplinary teams, solutions to big challenges come within reach. Yet, discipline-oriented university infrastructure often creates significant friction: mundane routines and ‘boring things’ act as ‘sand in the gears’, steering collaborations off course. Improving interdisciplinary collaborations requires shifting the analytical lens from abstract epistemic differences to the socio-material realities of the university. Moments of tension in such collaborations are not examined as interpersonal disagreements, but serve as diagnostic moments revealing how bureaucratic, educational, social, and spatial configurations condition researchers to clash. Amidst these constraints, researchers and professional staff operate as artful crafters of infrastructure, developing ad-hoc strategies to bypass limited infrastructural givens. Here, professional staff function not merely as administrative support, but as vital mediators in creating knowledge infrastructure. However, a paradox exists: while informal networks help navigate tensions, they sometimes crystallise into new ‘academic tribes’, inadvertently reinforcing the very silos that interdisciplinary collaborations seek to cross. Mitigating these tensions necessitates a university-wide ‘third-space’ approach, where mixed teams of academic and professional staff collect and transfer bottom-up strategies beyond individual interdisciplinary projects. Recognising the invisible labour of infrastructure–and the power dynamics inherent in these socio-material arrangements–is essential for rearranging the university to support genuine interdisciplinary inquiry.