The Montana Tech Interdisciplinary Collaboration Network

The Montana Tech Interdisciplinary Collaboration Network (ICN) is a part of the greater ICN established on the campus of the University of Montana (Missoula) and being duplicated at Montana State University (MSU). The ICN has been established to connect graduate researchers across a multitude of disciplines. Researchers and projects often require applications and knowledge that are not in their defined field. The ICN aims to bridge that gap.

The greater ICN has established a web-based platform for connecting people by making members’ expertise available and means of contact.

Montana Tech benefits from being a small campus but still the demand remains for cross-discipline collaboration. This is in conjuncture with disciplines on campus having the ability to collaborate with peers from other campuses and is the basis of the ICN. The ICN is not strictly about academic connection but aims to offer a casual atmosphere for collaboration and the formation of ideas. As such, Montana Tech’s ICN has two meetings per month (on a variable schedule depending on events). The first, occurring at the beginning of the month is a collaborative session with an educational aspect. This educational aspect ranges from problem solving and idea formation to guest speakers. The second meeting is of a more social nature. Some of the best ideas occur as a result of free-flowing ideas. The Montana Tech ICN will rotate where social functions occur ranging from social gatherings at local establishments to random events such as skiing days.