«innovative academy» ilmiy tadqiqotlarni

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«Zamonaviy dunyoda innovatsion tadqiqotlar: Nazariya 
va amaliyot» nomli ilmiy, masofaviy, onlayn konferensiya 
of creativity. As the Creative learners network put it, the background reports on each partner 
institution, which had been prepared prior to the first network meeting, “gave the group an idea 
of the diversity represented in the network and encouraged us to further explore how these 
differences influence our approach to creativity.” One of the potential pitfalls of stressing the 
importance of diversity for creativity lies, of course, in the ubiquity of the concept: diversity has 
been celebrated in so many contexts that it has become a cliché in many ways, which, in turn, 
has made it difficult to determine its exact meaning in a specific environment. Moreover, there 
is the risk that diversity is merely paid lip service, but is not embraced in practice. The Creative 
regions/cities network highlighted as one particularly beneficial aspect of such partnerships 
that they may bring together the perspectives of academics with those of practitioners and 
professionals to combine the quest for knowledge with the development of the region/city. The 
network stressed that if higher education institutions and their regional/city partners were to 
really embrace this particular kind of diversity, “rather than simply saying how wonderful 
diversity is,” they would be able to significantly enhance their creative potential in research, 
education and knowledge-based services. The principle of diversity was also explored by the 
Creative partnerships network, which elaborated on the creative potential of “tensions and 
dissent” surfacing in diverse groups which assemble a range of academic disciplines, 
professional and cultural backgrounds, age groups etc. This network report underlined the 
possible positive effects of heterogeneity, which is an inherent factor in all partnerships 
between higher education institutions and external partners. More specifically, the network 
commented on the important role that “unconventional teachers” may play in HEIs. Such 
teaching staff may come from inside or outside the HEI, but cooperation with external partners 
can be one particularly fruitful means of recruiting teachers with diverse backgrounds who 
bring new perspectives to the academy and encourage students to go beyond the traditional 
boundaries of a specific discipline. The same principle holds true for research: both institutional 
experience as well as scholarly studies indicate that research teams profit from a diversity of 
ages as well as disciplinary and cultural backgrounds among its members. This can encourage 
interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary and may thus lead to better solutions to research 
problems than could most likely be achieved within more homogeneous groups. The network 
also mentioned the related phenomenon that the “creative phase”, during which individuals are 
at their most productive, seems to be rather short. Its implications for academic recruitment 
are twofold. First of all, rather than paying attention to a candidate’s past achievements, it may 
be preferable to attempt identifying someone’s potential, since an academic who has been 
highly creative in the past will not be so indefinitely. Secondly, it may be advisable to constitute 
research teams by bringing together promising, but not as yet successful individuals (who may 
be just about to embark on a major finding) with those beyond their prime (who will support 
their more innovative colleagues with their expertise on past developments and experience).