Icelab is an interdisciplinary hub located at Umeå University in northern Sweden. We are working to break down the traditional boundaries between different scientific disciplines. When researchers with wide-ranging backgrounds, questions and ways of thinking are brought together, they may come up with innovative ideas if conditions are favourable for generating outside-the-box thinking. To create the most favourable conditions, IceLab and its approximately 20 scientists, from fields as diverse as mathematics, physics, ecology, biology and computer science, actively promote various events and activities where researchers from different disciplines meet to identify and discuss connections and synergies between their research projects.