Creating collaborative spaces: the pleasures and perils of doing multi-disciplinary, multi-partner qualitative research

This paper describes our experience of managing a two-year research project that involved University staff from two different disciplines and three industry partners. It describes the benefits we gained from the involvement of multiple parties, such as the ability to call upon diverse expertise, the capacity to study a complex issue and the ability to make a direct contribution to industry practice. It also describes some of the difficulties such as managing across University structures, maintaining the collaborators' interest in the project, gaining approval from multiple ethics committees and managing the expectations of various stakeholders. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations for senior University staff and for researchers and points to ways universities could better facilitate involvement in these types of complex research projects.