Collaborative Research: Enabling SBE Science via the Network for Transformative Research

该项目支持杰克逊州立大学(JSU)、伊利诺伊大学香槟分校(UIUC)、美国印第安人高等教育联盟和拉美裔学院和大学协会之间正在进行的合作，以实施变革研究网络(NTR)，将其作为产生多机构、跨学科研究合作的典范，以应对新出现的社会挑战。NTR建立在研究团队之前的成功基础上，使不同的团队成为核心，并使他们能够获得联邦资金，以应对与SBE相关的研究挑战。NTR将为与会者提供智力资源和培训，以克服已知的阻碍多样化、机构间科学合作的障碍。NTR具有通过以下方式促进变革的潜力：(1)为少数群体服务机构(MSI)和较小机构的早期职业研究人员提供机会，以形成多样化的研究团队，(2)促进基础设施有限的机构开发和维持研究计划的能力，(3)利用多个层面上多样化团队的解决问题的潜力，以及(4)实施一种敏捷机制，由服务于往往受社会挑战影响最大的社区的机构驱动的研究。国家技术研究中心将参与由联大管理的三项主要活动：(1)通过联合技术服务大学和UIUC之间以前的工作中制定的萌芽过程，从网络机构招募科学家参加队列；(2)通过让参与机构的行政人员参与，促进机构能力发展；(3)对国家技术研究活动进行持续评估，以改进进程，并为更广泛的研究界发展推广做法。NTR的初始队列将包括从密西西比州各地的大学挑选的教师，以确保来自MSI、小型、非专注于研究的农村机构和研究密集型大学的代表。拟议的项目支持征聘和管理两批研究人员，他们将围绕以下两个领域开展跨学科研究项目：(1)粮食不安全和(2)自然灾害复原力。这些主题中的每一个都被参与机构确定为构成密西西比州的社区的一个极其关注的领域。NTR将完善可持续的方法，以加速MSI的社会、行为和经济研究能力的发展。该项目扩展了以前开发的可扩展模式，通过将面临资源挑战的机构纳入更广泛的研究领域，并扩大参与机构内部和之间的合作网络和能力，从而扩大对科学的参与。该模式涉及一套全面的干预措施(其设计以团队科学、传播学和组织学的研究成果为基础)，包括组建不同的科学团队，促进项目管理，以及在研究密集型机构和研究基础设施有限的机构培养合作文化。正在采用的模式结合了协作解决问题、分布式研究协调和适应系统理论的要素，以产生一种既可扩展又可持续的研究能力建设的综合方法。UIUC的研究人员将使用混合方法评估(包括调查、定性访谈和实地观察)来分析参与者的经验，并开发经过测试和可扩展的方法，以克服创建多样化、成功的研究团队的系统性障碍。该项目还包括支持外部评估者评估NTR的计划。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project supports an ongoing collaborative effort between Jackson State University (JSU), The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the American Indian Higher Education Consortium, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities to implement the Network for Transformative Research (NTR) as a model to generate multi-institutional, transdisciplinary research collaborations that address emergent societal challenges. The NTR builds on the research team’s prior success nucleating diverse teams and enabling them to secure federal funding to address SBE relevant research challenges. The NTR will provide participants with intellectual resources and training to negotiate the barriers known to inhibit diverse, inter-institutional scientific collaboration. The NTR has potential to germinate transformation by: (1) Providing opportunities for early career researchers at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and smaller institutions to form diverse research teams, (2) Facilitating the capacity of institutions with limited infrastructure to develop and sustain research programs, (3) Harnessing the problem-solving potential of teams that are diverse across multiple dimensions, and (4) Implementing an agile mechanism for generating research driven by institutions serving communities often most affected by societal challenges. The NTR will engage in three primary activities, managed by JSU: (1) Recruiting scientists from network institutions to participate in cohorts through the germination process developed in prior work involving collaboration between JSU and UIUC, (2) Fostering institutional capacity development by engaging administrators across participating institutions, (3) Instituting ongoing evaluation of NTR activities to improve processes and to develop generalizable practices for the broader research community. The initial cohort for the NTR will include faculty selected from universities located throughout Mississippi, to ensure representation from MSIs, small, non-research-focused rural institutions, and research-intensive universities. The proposed project supports the recruitment and management of two cohorts of researchers who will develop interdisciplinary research projects centering on: (1) Food insecurity, and (2) Natural Disaster Resilience. Each of these topics has been identified by participating institutions as an area of dire attention to the communities constituting the state of Mississippi.The NTR will refine sustainable methods for accelerating the development of social, behavioral and economic research capacity at MSIs. The project extends a previously developed scalable model for broadening participation in science by bringing resource-challenged institutions into the broader research landscape and expanding collaborative networks and capacity within and among participating institutions. The model involves a comprehensive set of interventions (whose designs are grounded in research findings from the Science of Team Science, Communication Studies, and Organization Studies) that includes formation of diverse scientific teams, facilitated project management, and fostering of a collaborative culture at both research-intensive institutions and institutions having limited research infrastructure. The model being employed incorporates elements of collaborative problem-solving, distributed research coordination and adaptive systems theory to generate a comprehensive approach to research capacity-building that is both scalable and sustainable. Researchers at UIUC will use mixed-methods evaluations (including surveys, qualitative interviews, and field observations) to analyze participants’ experiences and to develop tested and scalable methods to overcome systemic barriers to the creation of diverse, successful research teams. The project also included support for external evaluators to assess the NTR’s programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.