Abstract: Research problems, particularly in the life and natural sciences, are characterized by increasingly complex and technical issues that require challenging strategies. Often it takes a cross- or trans-disciplinary approach to first understand and then solve such problems. To do so, teams of investigators drawn from several disciplines may find they need to come together to bring their separate, sometimes overlapping, expertise to bear on the problem.
This course will explore the concept of a team approach to solving a complex problem and help participants to see both how they might fit into such a concept and how they might seek to initiate a team science approach to attack a complex and unfulfilled problem.
Activities will include determining whether the research problem requires a team science approach; finding and focusing on the needs of such an approach; identifying the expertise needed to address the problem and whether and which disciplines may be needed; and deciding how to identify, recruit, and meld a team of investigators. Keys to success include how to organize the team around the goals set for addressing the problem, how to manage a team, and how the team can report out its findings and credit/reward participants.
Audience: Researchers, librarians, faculty/scholars, administrators, technical support