Interdisciplinary knowledge integration as a unique knowledge source for technology development and the role of funding allocation

This study examines the relationship between interdisciplinarity in knowledge integration (interdisciplinarity) for research and the extent to which the research serves as a unique knowledge input for technology development. To understand the role of the funding allocation therein, we additionally examine how research funding allocation shapes this relationship. To this end, we develop a simple bibliometric method to measure the uniqueness of research impact on technology development by using paper-patent citation network information. Our analysis of the metadata of over 0.7 million journal papers published in 2010 shows that the interdisciplinarity of research is positively associated with uniqueness in its contribution to technology development only when the research has funding support. We also find that interdisciplinarity in knowledge integration is positively associated with the non-unique impact of research on technology development regardless of funding support. Our findings suggest that interdisciplinary research may serve as a unique knowledge source for technology development, while the funding allocation process functions as an institutional instrument for selectively supporting interdisciplinary research that could have a unique technology impact. We discuss implications for science policymakers, research evaluators, and technology firms.