Does your institution have a tenure or a career promotion system in place that recognizes interdisciplinary science research within applicable disciplines?
Yes. Tzu Chi University has a career promotion system that can recognize interdisciplinary science research through multiple promotion pathways. Under the university’s faculty appointment and promotion regulations, promotion routes include academic research, teaching-practice research, industry-application, degree-based, creative practice, and sports-related pathways. This multi-track structure allows faculty achievements to be recognized not only through conventional disciplinary publications, but also through applied research, industry collaboration, and translational outputs.
In addition, public regulations indicate that the former College of International and Interdisciplinary Studies had its own faculty appointment and promotion review rules, demonstrating that the university has previously institutionalized promotion arrangements for interdisciplinary units. Taken together, these mechanisms show that the university’s promotion framework is capable of recognizing interdisciplinary and cross-sector scientific work.
4.1 Tri-Track Promotion System
The TCU Regulations Governing Faculty Appointment and Promotion establish three formally codified promotion tracks:
■ Research Track: Conventional research-led academic promotion evaluated on publications and grant receipts
■ Teaching-Practice Research Track: For faculty whose scholarly contributions are primarily manifested through educational innovation and applied pedagogical research — relevant to medical humanities and interdisciplinary curriculum development
■ Industry-Academic Application Track: For faculty whose research achievements are demonstrated through technology transfer, applied innovation, and industry collaboration
Crucially, the Regulations specify that faculty affiliated with the College of Humanities, Communication, and Social Sciences, the College of Education and Communication, and the College of International and Interdisciplinary Studies are subject to differentiated criteria appropriate to their disciplinary contexts. This structural differentiation explicitly acknowledges that scholarly output from interdisciplinary research domains does not conform to single-discipline publication norms and provides institutional protection against evaluative bias.
■ Faculty Appointment & Promotion Regulations: Full regulatory text [Link]
4.2 Evaluation Exemption Incentives for High-Performance and Mission-Critical Research
Under the TCU Faculty Evaluation Regulations, faculty who accept institutional-priority mission-driven research assignments are eligible for exemption from periodic review cycles, subject to Faculty Evaluation Committee approval. Separately, faculty who demonstrate distinguished contributions in teaching, research, or service may petition for evaluation exemption. These provisions reduce administrative burden for faculty engaged in large-scale, cross-disciplinary collaborative research programmes — precisely the kind of work for which standard publication volume metrics may be an inadequate proxy.
■ Faculty Evaluation Regulations: Formal evaluation procedures and exemption provisions [Link]
4.3 Career-Long Research Recognition: Permanent Exemption Threshold
Faculty who have cumulatively held 12 years or 12 individual NSTC-funded research projects over their institutional tenure are granted permanent exemption from the Research component of subsequent evaluation cycles. This provision institutionally rewards sustained long-term research commitment — encompassing interdisciplinary and single-discipline contributions equally — and reduces disincentives for mid-career faculty to pivot into interdisciplinary research areas that may require longer time horizons to yield publishable outputs.
4.4 Evaluation Criteria Encompassing Cross-Disciplinary Outputs
The Faculty Evaluation Implementation Guidelines assess faculty performance across three dimensions: Teaching, Research, and Guidance and Service. The Research dimension is evaluated through dual pathways — single-indicator performance or composite research profile achievement — providing evaluators with flexibility to recognise the multi-authored, multi-domain publication patterns characteristic of interdisciplinary science research.
