Integrative processes create connections across multiple
disciplines and areas of knowledge. They employ
interdisciplinary approaches, which offer possibilities for
expanding knowledge, opening new avenues of creativity and
concentrating resources. These approaches involve the capacity
to examine, interpret, evaluate, combine and use data,
knowledge, concepts, resources and strategies creatively and
productively to improve performance, advance knowledge and
catalyze discovery and opportunity.  Integration depends on the
discerning use of information from diverse sources. It requires
critical and systemic thinking to combine diverse arrays of
knowledge and inquiry to foster greater understandings of
complex systems.