Over the past decades, innovations have emerged from problem-oriented research based on knowledge integration at the intersection of different disciplines. Therefore, interdisciplinary collaboration   has been critical to find solutions for complex societal challenges. However, there are little spaces within and beyond the academy where researchers are encouraged to defy their field's boundaries -- leveraging their disciplinary mindset into contributions to broad domains, particularly within the Science, Technology, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Management (STEEM) and across Social Sciences and the Humanities. 

IDEAS conference aims to stimulate novel questions and challenge existing policy and practices on more innovative and sustainable systems.  Throughout history, technological innovation has led to the most significant dimensions of development – economic, social, and environmental - underpinning core changes in the way we live. 

How to turn interdisciplinary dialogues into action? The foundations of innovation dynamics lay on integrating knowledge to propose new systems and constantly refining our approach to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world. There is an increasing realization that this level is hard to address properly without communication between the respective scientific communities.