Inaugural Address to the Congress on Interdisciplinary Investigation of the Brain, Oxford — April 11–13th 1972

Abstract

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. First I must thank you for inviting me to give the opening address to this meeting. This is a meeting which it gives me particular pleasure to address, first because it brings me back for a moment to problems of the nervous system, which was my own scientific interest until I moved to an administrative post. I am also pleased because in many fields a multidisciplinary approach can be of considerable value and importance and the Medical Research Council actively tries to foster teams to undertake multidisciplinary attacks on a variety of problems. I am glad of an opportunity to consider not only the advantages of interdisciplinary investigations of the brain, but also an opportunity to talk about some of the realities and practical difficulties that do arise in organizing multidisciplinary teams.