Multidisciplinary Design is viewed as important by almost all of the sources surveyed as mentioned in Hub4NGI D2.1, and involves bringing together the right mix of experts from different disciplines who collaborate to address the problem at hand. The key elements of multidisciplinary design are shown in the following Figure.
Results from the FIRE STUDY Next Generation Internet (NGI) Digital Innovation Networks Consultation involving a Delphi Study with an expert panel emphasized the importance of multidisciplinary and end-to-end design. More than 50% of survey participants opined that the multidisciplinary approach should be the main policy recommendation for the NGI experimentation. Realising the all-and-always connected vision of the Next Generation Internet Experimentation System, the multidisciplinary approach will help in facing a number challenges. Bringing together people, data, devices in a variety of deployment scenarios will require end-to-end experimentation to be driven by combining expertise from different technology domains (e.g. wireless networks, optical networks, cloud computing, IoT, data science etc.) in relation to specific vertical sector needs (health care, creative media, smart transport, marine industry etc.) and horizontal disciplines push factors (e.g. psychology, law, sociology, arts, economics)[FIRE Study DIN 2017].
With the advancement speed of new technologies, the governance to legislation has become an ongoing process therefore multidisciplinary teams are deemed necessary. Hybrid teams of technical experts and lawyers will help ensure that legislation is relevant and implemented effectively [Takahashi 2017].
The Hub4NGI D2.1 emphasis that multidisciplinary teams are particularly suited to supporting end-to-end systems design, due to its heterogeneous nature, from edge computing, through networks to processing and application design. Participatory design patterns such as co-design and co-creation involving user communities and citizens are seen as part of end-to-end systems design. In turn, end-to-end design is supported by interoperability and open standards. Interoperability and open standards are clearly important to enabling end-to-end system design, and therefore should be encouraged and supported. The discussion on the recommended mechanism for support of multidisciplinary design can be seen in the innovation networks discussion channel.
