The fourth annual Interdisciplinary Symposium, hosted by the Interdisciplinary Institute at the 黑料网, took place in Elphinstone Hall on Wednesday 28th October.
Building on the momentum of previous years, Interdisciplinary Symposium 2026: From Insight to Impact will brought together staff and students from across the University to share ideas, showcase innovative work, and explore how interdisciplinary approaches can drive meaningful change.
We were delighted to welcome two distinguished keynote speakers:
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(University of Bristol), whose research on cultural evolution, kinship, and language exemplifies the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods
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(Food Standards Scotland), offering valuable perspectives from the science-policy interface and her experience supporting collaboration between researchers and decision-makers
The programme introduced new opportunities for engagement alongside popular elements from previous symposia, including:
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Short lightning talks highlighting emerging interdisciplinary work
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A dedicated poster and demo session showcasing projects from across the University
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A panel discussion exploring successes and challenges in interdisciplinary doctoral research
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A new participatory conversation space, designed to foster open, inclusive dialogue across disciplines and perspectives
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Informal networking throughout the day
Together, these sessions engaged with Aberdeen 2040’s five interdisciplinary challenge areas: Data & Artificial Intelligence; Energy Transition; Environment & Biodiversity; Health, Nutrition & Wellbeing; and Social Inclusion & Cultural Diversity.
The symposium provided the opportunity for colleagues and students to share their work, connect with colleagues, and explore new perspectives, offering a welcoming and stimulating space to reflect on how interdisciplinary insight can translate into real-world impact.
The programme for the event is available below.
Our Programme
| 09:30 - 10:00 | Arrival and networking with refreshments | ||||
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10:00 - 10:10 |
Welcome & Introduction Professor Ben Tatler, Vice-Principal (Research), 黑料网 |
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10:10 - 10:50 |
Keynote Session 1 - 'Research, Policy and Public Health: Turning Evidence into Action' Mrs Heather Kelman, Chair of Food Standards Scotland (FSS) Heather Kelman has been Chair of Food Standards Scotland (FSS) since April 2022 and a member of the FSS Board since it was established in April 2015. Heather has 40 years’ experience of working in the public sector, the first 10 years as a dietitian, then as a strategic planner and senior manager within the NHS. Heather worked closely with Scottish Government and other Stakeholders on several health policy issues including the development of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 and Healthcare Associated Infection. Health protection, promoting positive health and wellbeing and addressing health inequalities were a particular focus throughout her career. A native of Aberdeen, Heather’s childhood was closely associated with food production, retail and agriculture and she continues to have a strong interest in these, alongside conservation work in the countryside throughout Aberdeen. With audience Q&A. |
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10:50 - 11:35 |
3 Minute Interdisciplinary Flash Talks This session will feature a selection of flash talks from colleagues from across our interdisciplinary community to showcase research, education and impact which stems from interdisciplinary thinking. ‘SAFeR 2.0: The Fetal Exposome and Lifelong Health ‘Aberdeen Geothermal Feasibility Pilot (AGFP)’ ‘Are societies becoming more self-centric? Evidence from five decades of popular music spanning three continents’ 'Object-level spatiotemporal variability of winter sea-ice leads in the western Canadian Arctic’ ‘The Conundrum of accessibility and transformation in sustainable food systems: Evidence from farmers’ markets and farm shops’ 'Can glacial rock flour improve soil fertility and crop production in high mountain agricultural communities?' ‘Exploring the role of higher-order interactions in living systems’ ‘Understanding challenges to retention and career progression of doctors with disabilities in the NHS: an institutional ethnography study’ ‘Beyond the Hardware: Digital Research Infrastructure as a Collaborative Platform’ ‘Nature and nurture in the (linguistic) development of the self’ With audience Q&A. |
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11:35 - 11:45 |
Comfort Break |
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11:45 - 12:30 |
Panel Discussion - Successes and Challenges in Interdisciplinary Student Research Panel members:
With audience participation |
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12:30 - 13:30 |
Lunch, Networking and Interdisciplinary Showcase A unique and interactive opportunity to speak to researchers and educators working across disciplinary boundaries at the 黑料网. Colleagues from across our interdisciplinary community will showcase posters and demonstrations to share their work spanning the themes of Energy Transition; Health, Nutrition and Wellbeing; Data and Artificial Intelligence; Environment and Biodiversity; and Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity. Lunch will be provided. |
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13:30 - 14:10 |
Keynote Session 2 - 'Jigsaws, toolkits, and the importance of a common goal: interdisciplinary insights from working in cultural evolution' Professor Fiona Jordan, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol Fiona Jordan is an evolutionary and linguistic anthropologist, and like most anthropologists, she wants to understand cultural diversity. There are two parts to that inquiry: Why do humans–a single species–have so much variation in behaviour and culture? But why don’t human societies vary more? Her work seeks to do cross-cultural research in new and innovative ways by combining methods, data, and theory from biology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics. She has a background, either through formal training or long-term collaborative practice, in all these fields. Her core subfield is cultural phylogenetics: understanding cultural diversity using the same statistical tools that biologists use to investigate evolutionary and diversity processes in other species. Recent work has investigated global diversity in kinship terminologies, numerical systems, and cultural uses of plants. She is Professor in Anthropology at the University of Bristol, and currently, President of the Cultural Evolution Society. With audience Q&A. |
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14:10 - 14:50 |
3 Minute Interdisciplinary Flash Talks This session will feature a selection of flash talks from colleagues from across our interdisciplinary community to showcase research, education and impact which stems from interdisciplinary thinking. ‘Applications of graph-based techniques to image processing’ ‘Leverhulme Institute for Networks and Social Connectivity in AGEing (LINC-AGE) Doctoral Scholarship Programme’ ‘Why conservation needs the humanities’ ‘Whose Fish Are They? Governing Fisheries in a Changing and Crowded Ocean’ ‘AI, Deep Learning Foundation Models to Analyse Glacier Dynamics and Segmentation in the Wild’ ‘Electrified Upgrading of Biogas via Plasma Technologies’ ‘Trauma, Thresholds, and the Otherworld: Lived Experiences of Fairy Encounters Frames encounters as part of post trauma meaning making’ ‘Temporal shifts in human perception of automated vehicles’ 'Gazing at the Sky with Ancient Eyes Dark Skies in the Past and Today' With audience Q&A. |
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14:50 - 15:30 |
Interdisciplinary Poster and Demonstration Session with refreshments A unique and interactive opportunity to speak to researchers and educators working across disciplinary boundaries at the 黑料网. Colleagues from across our interdisciplinary community will showcase posters and demonstrations to share their work spanning the themes of Energy Transition; Health, Nutrition and Wellbeing; Data and Artificial Intelligence; Environment and Biodiversity; and Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity. |
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15:30 - 16:25 |
Long Table Discussions, Linklater Rooms Take a seat at the table and join a collaborative conversation. Whether you bring expertise, curiosity or a new perspective, your contribution will help shape the conversation. The conversation belongs to those around the table. Its purpose is not to arrive at a single answer, but to think together, grapple with complexity and see what new ideas emerge. Explore the two Long Table topics below and choose the conversation you would like to join.
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| 16:30 |
Closing Remarks Professor Ben Tatler, Vice-Principal (Research), 黑料网 |
Interdisciplinary Demonstrations and Table Displays
A unique and interactive opportunity to speak to researchers and educators working across disciplinary boundaries at the 黑料网. Colleagues from across our interdisciplinary community will showcase posters and demonstrations to share their work spanning the themes of Energy Transition; Health, Nutrition and Wellbeing; Data and Artificial Intelligence; Environment and Biodiversity; and Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity.
- Interdisciplinary Posters
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'The Folk Deity Bonbibi: Locally Driven Knowledge Systems and Musical Traditions to Natural Resource Management and Climate Resilience in the Sundarbans Coastal Regions'
Mr Md. Bakebillah, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture'Counting and accountability: a decade of extending routine mortality surveillance into public and community health action in rural South Africa'
Dr Lucia D'Ambruoso, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition'Biodiversity Net Gain through nature restoration of urban green spaces'
Mr Barnaby Fogg, School of Social Science'Towards A Provenance Framework for Modelling Human Oversight of AI Decision Making'
Ms Arpita Gado, Interdisciplinary Institute, School of Natural and Computing Sciences'Electromagnetic control schemes for the enhancement of plasma-driven water electrolysis'
Miss Zhadyra Gani, Interdisciplinary Institute, School of Natural and Computing Sciences'How Well Can We Predict Length of Stay at Admission? Evidence from Hospital-Wide Electronic Health Record Data'
Mr Alexander Groh, School of Natural and Computing Sciences'Beyond the fare: Occupational stress among bus conductors in Sri Lanka'
Dr Balangoda Gunawardana, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition'AI’s Application in Career Guidance Conversations'
Miss Ruimei Jiang, School of Psychology'Arabic in Spanish: Speaking, Knowing, and Belonging at the Edges of Europe'
Dr Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture'Goals, Obstacles, and Intentions: Judgments of Hand Actions in Human and Artificial Observers'
Ms Alzbeta Manova, School of Psychology'Introducing MATLA (Machine Translation Literacy for All) Campaign
''Improving offshore renewable energy site characterisation through optimised high resolution seismic data inversion and geotechnical parameter definition.'
Mr Alex Nurdin, School of Geosciences'Environmental Health Risks, Community Experiences, and Healthcare Access in Oil-Polluted Rural Communities of South-South Nigeria: A Case Study of Bayelsa State.'
Dr Akeibomo Penuel, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition'Just Transition Communities Project'
Professor Tavis Potts, School of Geosciences'Systems Approaches For Accelerating A Just Transition (JUST-Systems)'
Dr Leonardo Ricaurte, School of Geosciences'Machine Learning-Based Prediction of Recurrence-Free Survival in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Using PET/CT Radiomics'
Mrs Huda Al Saairi, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition'Monastic Landscapes: From Exploitation to Natural Conservation and Restoration of Wetlands in NE Scotland'
Miss Teodora Santandrea, Interdisciplinary Institute, School of Geosciences'TRANSitions In Energy For Coastal Communities Over Time And Space (TRANSECTS)'
Dr Daria Shapovalova, School of Law'Illicit Power: Disrupting State Power over Business'
Professor Trevor Stack, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture'Evidence for Bergmann's and Allen's rule globally across mammals'
Mr James Nathan Tang, School of Biological Sciences'Democratising Climate Change Knowledge for Sustainable Development: A Tale of Rights and Duties?'
Mr Felix Uzoma, School of Law - Interdisciplinary Demonstrations and Table Displays
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Demonstrations
'Identi-Tea Crisis, Exploring Crop Wild Relatives in Speciality Tea'
Ms Celia Aceae, Interdisciplinary Institute, School of Biological Sciences
'How Deep Can You Fine-Tune a French Model?: Low-Resource Language Modelling for Missouri French'
Colonel Jourdan Devereaux, School of Language, Literature, Music and Visual Culture'Visual storytelling for impact: A novel creation of a comic to raise awareness of menopause in the workplace'
Miss Chithramali Rodrigo, School of Psychology'Learning to trust, and trusting to belong'
Ms Yuan Shen, School of PsychologyTable Displays
Aberdeen Health Determinants Research Collaboration, Aberdeen City Council
The helps connect academic research with the complex challenges facing local government. Led by Aberdeen City Council in collaboration with 黑料网, RGU, NHS Grampian and funded by NIHR, we work to strengthen the use of evidence, evaluation, and research across policy and decision-making, with a particular focus on the wider determinants of health.
We're keen to meet researchers from any discipline who are interested in collaboration beyond traditional academic boundaries. Whether you are developing a funding proposal, looking for policy partners, exploring opportunities for knowledge exchange, or interested in seeing your research inform real-world decisions, we'd love to chat.'Navigating and Bridging Divides: Interdisciplinary Research in a World of Change'
Granite - Postgraduate Research Journal
As the 黑料网’s postgraduate research journal, Granite embraces an interdisciplinary approach at every stage of the publishing process, from our diverse editorial board to each volume’s chosen theme and the papers we publish. We welcome submissions across all schools and departments. At our yearly symposium, we create an opportunity for in-person exchange of perspectives and collaboration. A commitment to interdisciplinary inclusion comes with unique challenges, but we believe overcoming these challenges makes us better researchers by directing our work to be more broadly impactful and accessible.
Our theme for this year reflects our commitment to interdisciplinary research. We invite submissions to Volume 12 of Granite Journal, “Navigating and Bridging Divides: Interdisciplinary Research in a World of Change”. This volume puts interdisciplinary research at the centre of how we respond to the rapid changes in our world. The current state of academia can feel increasingly fractured and precarious. Our challenge to researchers is to ask how interdisciplinary scholarship might navigate shifting boundaries and divisions. Visit our table to learn more about Granite, our mission, and our upcoming issue, which explores the role of interdisciplinary research in a changing world. Discover how you can contribute to Volume 12 and join us in navigating and bridging the divides within academia and beyond.'From Research to Policy: Supporting Impact Through Engagement'
Dr Ruth Banks, Research, Innovation & Enterprise
Effective engagement with policymakers and policy professionals can enhance the reach, relevance and impact of research. This table will introduce a new University-wide Policy Engagement Resource, designed to support researchers across disciplines and career stages. Bringing together practical guidance, institutional support, and insights from experienced colleagues, the resource aims to demystify policy engagement and help researchers identify meaningful pathways to influence. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the resource, provide feedback, and share questions, ideas, and experiences that can inform its future development. We are particularly keen to gather suggestions for case studies, testimonials, FAQs, and examples of good practice, helping to build a community-owned resource that reflects the breadth of policy engagement activity across the University. Supporting interdisciplinary research and impact, the resource is intended to help researchers at all career stages engage more confidently and effectively with policy stakeholders.University Staff Mentoring Scheme: Strengthening Our Interdisciplinary Community
Ms Caron Foster, People & Student Services
Successful interdisciplinary communities are built not only through projects and funding, but through relationships. This table will showcase the University's Staff Mentoring Scheme as a means of strengthening connections across disciplines, supporting professional development, expanding networks, and fostering a culture of collegiality and citizenship that enables collaboration to flourish.
Get involved
Photos: highlights from previous interdisciplinary symposia
Queries can be directed to: interdisciplinary@abdn.ac.uk
Keynote Speakers
- Heather Kelman, Food Standards Scotland
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Heather Kelman has been Chair of Food Standards Scotland (FSS) since April 2022 and a member of the FSS Board since it was established in April 2015.
Heather has 40 years’ experience of working in the public sector, the first 10 years as a dietitian, then as a strategic planner and senior manager within the NHS. Heather worked closely with Scottish Government and other Stakeholders on several health policy issues including the development of the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Act 2014 and Healthcare Associated Infection.
Health protection, promoting positive health and wellbeing and addressing health inequalities were a particular focus throughout her career.
A native of Aberdeen, Heather’s childhood was closely associated with food production, retail and agriculture and she continues to have a strong interest in these, alongside conservation work in the countryside throughout Aberdeen.
- Professor Fiona Jordan, University of Bristol
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Fiona Jordan is an evolutionary and linguistic anthropologist, and like most anthropologists, she wants to understand cultural diversity. There are two parts to that inquiry: Why do humans–a single species–have so much variation in behaviour and culture? But why don’t human societies vary more? Her work seeks to do cross-cultural research in new and innovative ways by combining methods, data, and theory from biology, psychology, anthropology, and linguistics. She has a background, either through formal training or long-term collaborative practice, in all these fields. Her core subfield is cultural phylogenetics: understanding cultural diversity using the same statistical tools that biologists use to investigate evolutionary and diversity processes in other species. Recent work has investigated global diversity in kinship terminologies, numerical systems, and cultural uses of plants. She is Professor in Anthropology at the University of Bristol, and currently, President of the Cultural Evolution Society.