Monitieteellinen

Monitieteellinen is a Finnish adjective used to describe approaches, research, and institutions that combine knowledge, methods, and perspectives from several scientific disciplines. The term implies integration across fields to address questions that cannot be adequately understood from a single discipline. In Finnish usage it is closely related to interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary concepts and is commonly applied to projects, courses, or programs that deliberately cross disciplinary boundaries.

In higher education and research, monitieteellinen approaches bring together researchers from natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, and professional disciplines. Examples include studies on environmental sustainability that integrate ecology, economics, and policy analysis; public health research that combines epidemiology, sociology, and statistics; and urban planning that merges geography, engineering, and anthropology. The label is used for degree programs such as monitieteellinen opintokokonaisuus or monitieteellinen maisteriohjelma, which design curricula around cross-disciplinary themes rather than a single discipline.

Benefits of monitieteellinen work include broader perspectives, methodological innovation, and more robust solutions to complex problems. Challenges include coordinating differing epistemologies, terminology, and methodological standards, maintaining coherent research questions, and securing funding for cross-field collaboration. The concept is also expressed in nouns such as monitieteisyys (interdisciplinarity) and monitieteellinen tutkimus (interdisciplinary research), terms commonly encountered in Finnish academic discourse.