Jeroen Poelert & Anna Vilhunen

Solving sustainability and equity problems globally is a great challenge. One critical reason for this is the complex nature of our modern society, as many problems are embedded in a web of social, political, technical, and ecological systems. Therefore, scientists are required to increasingly work across multiple disciplines and sectors to find effective solutions.  Although this is widely acknowledged by many scientists, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary researchers are often struggling to find their place in the present academic community.  

In this context, getting used to a new working environment can be a great challenge. In the beginning of 2025, we (Jeroen and Anna) both started our doctoral studies at Aalto University in the Water and Development Research Group (WDRG) as part of the Digital Waters (DIWA) doctoral education pilot. Although the WDRG and DIWA pilot work across multiple disciplines, both organizations are rooted in engineering and predominantly focus on finding technical solutions to water and environmental problems. Coming from two completely contrasting non-engineering backgrounds, we struggled with finding our role within our new research community and started questioning how our work could fit into the scope of the WDRG and DIWA pilot. Inspired by our many coffee table discussions and a little help from science, we would like to share how we explored our sense of belonging as topical outsiders and how our insights could help others to do so. In other words, what does it mean to belong when no one else shares your background? 

Jeroen – A generalist in a specialized world 

During my master studies and previous teaching work at Wageningen University, I developed myself towards a sociotechnical generalist in the context of food systems, agroecology and water management. This means that I do not consider myself as an ‘expert’ in any of the disciplines related to these topics. So not a soil wizard or connoisseur of hydrology, nor a master in social sciences. Although I think it is a valuable asset to be able to oversee a bigger system and making different connections across disciplines, I feel that it is hard to tell my friends and family, but also my colleagues, what I am good at and how I could for example contribute to another’s work.  

In my doctoral research I am continuing the directions from my previous work to study future social and technical pathways towards sustainable food systems. To do this, I will use a range of different methods, from using numerical food system models to employing qualitative and participatory research approaches with farmers. This means that the work is not directly related to water engineering but, for example, rather contributes to achieving cleaner water systems due to the improved (re)use of agricultural resources in the food system.  

The first period at the new research group was an exciting time, with many new smart faces and new research directions to explore. Yet, some things can feel overwhelming and trigger insecurities regarding your own capabilities. The food and farming related research at our group is predominantly specialized at a global scale with large spatial datasets and modelling approaches, which is very different from the more local perspectives and mixed method approaches that I am used to working with.  At the same time, many of my colleagues’ articles are being published in globally top-ranked journals and sometimes even get attention in (inter)national media. On one hand, it makes me feel privileged to be surrounded with such impactful research, but it also calls up insecurities related to the level of expectations and the match between your own expertise and the focus of the research team.  

Anna – Trying to belong while making academia more inclusive 

Contrastingly to Jeroen’s background I come from educational sciences. Hence, I am a total outlier as a PhD student in the engineering discipline within WDRG and DIWA. Having these diverse backgrounds and somewhat shared experiences in struggling to find our own place and voice in this new environment, in addition to strong interest in fostering community spirit, has brought us together as work buddies. 

In my doctoral thesis, I explore how to make doctoral supervision more inclusive, building on my background in special education (M. Sc. of Arts (Ed.), University of Jyväskylä) and prior work at Aalto University on educational development. Thus, psychological safety and sense of belonging are closely linked to my work. Before pursuing my PhD, I worked at Aalto, which in a way made the transition to this research group easier compared to many other students who come not only from different cultures but also from, for example, various disciplines, career stages, socioeconomical and (dis)ability starting points. I recognize my privilege in my own position and try to contribute to the development of inclusiveness of doctoral education and supervision, both in my daily life and professionally. 

What has puzzled me the most so far is combining disciplinary epistemologies and practices in my work. For example, how do I balance the depth of understanding that comes from qualitative approach with generalizability that quantitative research is after? Humanist research has its own differences compared to engineering sciences, and even though I am very eager to learn more from the latter to expand my expertise as interdisciplinary researcher, it is sometimes a struggle to do that as part of a PhD pilot strongly emphasizing on water engineering. 

 

Interdisciplinarity in a disciplined academic world  

During the first months of our doctoral studies, we have been discussing the reasoning behind our insecurities and feeling like topical outsiders in our new team (Figure 1). During this period, we came across a new study published by Salmela and colleagues (2025), who described how interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary researchers are still underrecognized in the modern academic world and often do not have the same academic opportunities as their specialized colleagues. According to the authors, supporting interdisciplinary research is mainly challenged by institutional barriers, such as the unequal distribution of resources and opportunities compared to their disciplined peers, and tensions that arise when trying to address research questions with a variety of viewpoints from many contrasting disciplines. From the perspective of an inter- or transdisciplinary researcher, this lack of understanding and support from the academic environment, frequently expresses itself in crises regarding their disciplinary identity, feelings of being isolated, lack of professional confidence and not feeling home to a research community (Duke & Denicolo, 2017; Salmela et al., 2025). In other words, if we want to produce impactful research to help solving global problems, supporting researchers in their identity tensions and journeys towards finding academic belonginess is a prerequisite, rather than only a matter of wellbeing (Rashid, 2021; Salmela et al., 2025). 

After reading their article, we recognized many of our feelings and were able to put our coffee table discussions into context. It is not weird to sometimes be overwhelmed and feel like juggling your academic identities in the engineering setting of our academic environment. Moreover, Salmela and colleagues (2015) compare interdisciplinary researchers to queer people in a heteronormative society, in the sense that they are an underrepresented group struggling with their scholarly identity in an unequal position within the academia. However, the findings from their work only partially answered our questions, as we still feel like belonging to our research community, though being disciplinary outsiders. 

 

Research community support as a key ingredient for sense of belonging 

In our further exploration to find answers (Figure 2), we figured that the belonginess to our interdisciplinary team can be explained by of two important components, namely, supervisory and office community support. Within our supervision teams we feel encouraged and free to explore our own personal development and research interests. We can easily connect with colleagues from other disciplines to learn and, potentially, collaborate on our studies even when the research topic of an article might be slightly outside of the common work of the research team. Of course, we still think that it remains important that our research work strongly connects with the work of our group, as we need proper supervision to become better researchers and educators in the end. However, this kind of support enables us to explore our personal and research identity, creating a feeling of social recognition regarding our interdisciplinary backgrounds. 

At the same time, while continuing our discussions around the coffee table with our peer doctoral students, we realized that we perhaps forgot the most important aspect, an active office community. Initiated by many of us, we enjoy social support actively through daily lunches, writing sessions, weekly badminton, and other spontaneous after work activities. One great example of our social gatherings are the coffee breaks at the office around puzzle table, creating a low barrier for social interactions. Many of these activities have created a space to find social and emotional peer support regarding work-related struggles, but also external struggles with, for example, colleagues moving to Finland from abroad. We recognized that this community feeling enabled a motivating environment where we encourage each other to find our research identity outside the boundaries of our group through shared experiences.  

Also, from science we found that support from peers and supervisors during doctoral studies contributes to feeling a sense of belonginess to the academic community. Hazell et al. (2020) describe these kinds of aspects in their review as “The power of being seen”. The authors explain multiple ingredients that could support the PhD students’ feeling of belonginess to the community, such as sharing experiences with peers and developing friendships within academia, but also supervisors expressing interest and support towards the students’ personal values, struggles and successes are found important. During the past months, we have started to recognize these factors from our research community. 

Fitting in or standing out? Belongingness starts with small gestures 

What does it mean to belong when no one else shares your background? We still do not have a full answer, but we have learned that academic belonginess is not about working in the same discipline as your peers – it is about being seen, supported and able to grow together. We acknowledge that we might find ourselves in a lucky position having many likeminded and active colleagues around us and many doctoral students, post-docs in WDRG, as well as peers and support staff starting simultaneously as part of the DIWA pilot. However, we can imagine when reading this as a young researcher, who might be struggling with finding belonginess within their academic or office community, that there are many questions about what can be done. The truth is, there is not a clear blueprint for unlocking community spirit. In our experience, it is the small and consistent efforts that make the difference. Why not start with something simple like shared lunches and coffee breaks over a puzzle table, or after work sports or drinks? It does not have to be complicated – asking someone how they are doing goes a long way.    

Acknowledgement 

We would like to express our appreciation to our supportive colleague Julia Sundman, for her thoughtful comments and suggestions on an earlier version of the blog article. 

 

Anna Vilhunen is a doctoral researcher working in the Water and Development Research Group (WDRG) at Aalto University. She holds a MSc degree in Education and has special interest in doctoral education and supervision, educational development, and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). Her research focuses on inclusivity of doctoral supervision.

 

Jeroen Poelert is a doctoral research within the Water & Development Research Group at Aalto University. He holds a MSc degree in International Land & Water Management and has a special interest for the sustainability of food and farming systems. His research focusses on finding future pathways towards nutrient circularity and equity from global to farm level, using modelling and participatory research approaches.

 

References 

1. Duke, D. C. & Denicolo, P. M. (2017). What supervisors and universities can do to enhance doctoral student experience (and how they can help themselves). FEMS Microbiology Letters, 364, https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fnx090 

1. Hazell, C.M., Chapman, L., Valeix, S.F. et al. Understanding the mental health of doctoral researchers: a mixed methods systematic review with meta-analysis and meta-synthesis. Syst Rev 9, 197 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-020-01443-1 

1. Rashid, R. (2021). Updating the PhD: Making the case for interdisciplinarity in twenty-first-century doctoral education. Teaching in Higher Education, 26(3), 508–517. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1892624 

1. Salmela, M., Vienni-Baptista, B. & Cheas, K. (2025). Towards the Recognition of Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Researchers. Minerva. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-025-09578-y