Comment: The false economy of disciplinary silos

Prof. David Renn (ETH Zürich) reflects on the institutional structures that discourage interdisciplinary research — from department-based funding to single-discipline promotion criteria — and argues that the most pressing scientific challenges of our time, from climate adaptation to pandemic preparedness, demand integrated approaches. "The silo is comfortable," he writes, "but comfort is not the same as productivity. The journals, funders, and universities that dismantle these barriers will shape the most important science of the next quarter-century."