PEER REVIEWED ABSTRACT (POSTER PRESENTATION): Recent imperatives at international and national levels have called for new and innovative interdisciplinary research. Aligning research across traditional university faculties at the local level involves a complex negotiation between top-down and bottom-up processes. In this poster presentation, we provide an account of one Centre's recent history in growing an interdisciplinary research culture. Specifically, we chart the growth of the Centre for Applied Language, Literacy and Communication Studies (CALLCS) at Griffith University from 2003 to the present. From the onset, research leaders in CALLCS undertook the challenge of building a collective identity among 48 researchers across two faculties (Education and Arts) which spanned four campuses. In addition to the conceptual challenges of interdisciplinary research were pragmatic challenges of infrastructure support and research management. We share how we addressed what we saw as two key paradoxes for research leadership. First, how can a Research Centre maintain and enhance individual research while building capacity within a collective? Second, how can Research Centre leaders take a non-directive approach to individual research interests while setting and meeting performance targets within a collective? In sharing our conceptual and pragmatic journey with CALLCS, we reflect on implications for other researchers and research managers. Specifically, we reflect on how growing an interdisciplinary research culture from the 'bottom-up' can address national 'top-down' imperatives.