Good to great: The impact of interdisciplinarity on the researchers’ funding performance

Interdisciplinary research (IDR) has been highly encouraged in modern science as it is believed to bring forth scientific breakthroughs. However, it is widely believed that engaging in IDR may not favorably impact a researcher's career development. This study seeks to explore whether top researchers encounter similar pessimistic outlooks when participating in IDR. Accordingly, this study focuses on funded applicants, who presumably demonstrate a degree of excellence above those who were not awarded funding to some extent. Specifically, our study was designed to explore the impact of interdisciplinarity on individual-sponsored funding based on the dataset of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Our data set obtained from the NSFC comprises 224,085 records of funded projects between 1999 and 2014, encompassing all scientific departments from the NSFC system. We analyzed the relationship between the researcher's interdisciplinarity and their funding performance. Moreover, we examined the influential role that various factors played in moderating the link between interdisciplinarity and individual-sponsored funding such as the experience of granter, affiliation reputation, and affiliation disciplinary advantage. The results showed a positive effect of interdisciplinarity on researchers' funding performance. Individuals with a higher degree of interdisciplinarity tended to receive a greater number of funded projects and higher funding values. Additionally, the experience of granter, affiliation reputation, and affiliation disciplinary advantage all played a positive moderating role in this relationship. This study fills essential lacunae in our understanding of support systems for interdisciplinary research within China's grant-giving framework. It further provides significant insights into the connection between interdisciplinary researchers and their funding outcomes. • IDR positively impacts funding performance for top researchers in China. • Dataset includes 224,085 NSFC-funded projects from 1999 to 2014. • Higher interdisciplinarity leads to more funded projects and greater funding values. • Experience, affiliation reputation, and disciplinary advantage enhance funding outcomes. • Study offers insights into support systems for IDR in China's grant framework.