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Bojan Tomić, PhD
Institute for Multidisciplinary Research, University of Belgrade, Republic of Serbia

 

EARLY INSTITUTIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN EDUCATION AND RESEARCH IN EUROPE – CENTER FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE (1970s – 80s)

Vol. XLIII, 2/2025, pp. 485–504
https://doi.org/10.29362/ist20veka.2025.2.tom.485-504

 

ABSTRACT/RESUME:

The foundation of one of the first European interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary oriented institutions – Center for Multidisciplinary Studies of the University of Belgrade – is described here as a case of research policy and the strong influence of human factor in the specific circumstances of post-war domestic and foreign policy of socialist Yugoslavia and world politics during the Cold War. In the then bipolar world, Yugoslavia, which was one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement, took the third path, thus gaining the possibility of broad international cooperation, including participation in advanced and innovative projects from East to West. One of the trends in education and science that spread from the USA to the European countries of the Western Bloc was the formation of centres in which different disciplines were networked in order to solve problems. Combining medical, biological, chemical, physical, mathematical, technical and social sciences, new interdisciplinary fields such as neuroscience, biophysics, materials science and socio-medical research emerged. In the post-war period of building institutions of higher education and science in Yugoslavia, with the personal efforts of certain scientists and policymakers, such an innovative centre was opened in the country of self-managing socialism. The Center was conceived as postgraduate studies and research institution in disciplines that were a synthesis of other disciplines, or that belonged to the boundary between disciplines such as: biological, medical, chemical, mathematical, physical, technical and social sciences. In 2007, the Center was reorganized as a scientific research institution with the name “Institute for Multidisciplinary Research.” In 2025 the Institute celebrates its 55th anniversary.

 

KEYWORDS: Center for Multidisciplinary Studies, University of Belgrade, Multidisciplinarity, Cold War, Science in Yugoslavia, History of Science, History of Education, Institute for Multidisciplinary Research

 

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