Interdisciplinarity has become the model of scholarly inquiry generally espoused by many who seek federal research funding. Interdisciplinary research centers pose challenges to academic settings and to investigators. In a conference of directors of diverse research centers at a single research university we found that the challenges facing centers and their universities fell into three major categories: fiscal sustainability, recruiting and retaining faculty, and leadership sustainability. These challenges are discussed, and institutional recommendations are proposed to address these challenges. (Contains 1 table.)