Working in multidisciplinary and methodologically diverse teams: practical lessons from collaborating with defence-based organisations

Academics in scholarly institutions work collaboratively with external stakeholders to solve real-world problems of mutual interest. Funding for academic research is increasingly competitive, with many academics turning to industry to secure funding. A traditional yet growing collaboration area is between academics and defence-based organisations. Defence-based organisations comprise a significant portion of the economy and are a key contributor to academic research opportunities whereby mutual success is the goal. This chapter draws on the literature exploring working with multidisciplinary teams, methodological diversity, and characteristics of effective research collaborations within teams. The authors share their experience of navigating the defence sector to arrive at successful collaboration with defence-based organisations. The authors bring 60 years of combined experience working within multidisciplinary teams and over 25 years working with defence organisations. This chapter exemplifies key characteristics of successful collaboration to encourage business and management academics to consider the benefits of collaborating with defence-based organisations.