Junior researchers’ experience of innovation in a multidisciplinary team environment

This paper describes junior researchers’ experience of innovative research, with the aim of encouraging fellow junior academics. Through the experience, the team recognised that context and flexibility are key factors in the research process. These factors are discussed in the light of three specific features of this project. First is the type of research the team engages in: meta‐research, which includes looking at how research is managed. Second, the team is embedded in a larger organisation that holds a broad range of perspectives, from molecular scientists to sociologists. Third, the organisation offers unique opportunities not available through the traditional academic paradigm. Identification of these factors influenced the learning associated with engaging in innovative research, not in the least was the lesson that research does not follow a linear path. These concepts are framed by Blumer's theory of Symbolic Interactionism.