Research Infrastructure: RCN: A Comprehensive Toolkit for Interdisciplinary Team Science, & its Context-Dependent Application

需要跨学科团队科学来解决人类面临的许多挑战，从流行病到能源部门的转型，再到我们人类所面临的最大挑战，即气候变化。自2020年以来，美国国家科学基金会投资了一系列大型团队生物整合研究所，以推进生物科学优先领域的创新，目前资助了13个研究所。这些团队提供了一个强大的进步机会，除了他们的科学：他们开发或应用的跨学科团队科学工具的收集和组织，以及对其应用的上下文依赖性的评估-例如，主办组织（例如大学规模，卡内基分类系统，所服务的人群）和团队特征（例如规模，治理结构，职业阶段，人口统计）如何影响团队对不同类型工具的优先需求。在这个研究协调网络中，生物学整合研究所将共同努力，汇集资源，评估使用的上下文依赖性，并传播收集的跨学科团队科学工具包。这将促进跨一系列领域的科学进步，在这些领域中，大型团队集成是必不可少的。技术描述：该研究协调网络（RCN）将生物整合研究所（BII）项目成员联合起来，在一个有组织的工具包中分享跨学科团队的知识、工具和观点，涵盖从治理计划到社交媒体最佳实践的元素。它还评估了这些工具对团队的价值是如何根据组织和团队背景，跨一系列轴（例如，大学类型）而变化的。最后，它通过科学团队和社区的广泛网络传播工具包和上下文依赖分析的结果。拟议的RCN项目的优点在于利用NSF BII计划的机会来收获跨学科团队的资源，这些资源是由这些组织的数百名科学家开发或组装的，并进行了“现场测试”。通过评估跨团队的工具的相对有用性和重要性，并将评估扩展到RCN的团队科学家合作过的其他大型团队，RCN将提供对工具使用的上下文依赖性的定性见解，这是团队科学实践者之间的关键知识差距。拟议的工作的影响是促进跨一系列社区的团队合作，并使团队资源的知识民主化，这可能对扩大参与提议和领导大型科学团队构成重大障碍。一系列早期职业研究人员也将直接参与RCN的实施和相关培训。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Interdisciplinary Team Science is needed to address numerous challenges facing humanity, from pandemics, to the transformation of the energy sector, to the largest challenge our species has ever faced, that of climate change. Since 2020, the National Science Foundation has invested in a collection of large-team Biology Integration Institutes to advance innovation in priority areas across the biological sciences, with 13 currently funded Institutes. This collection of teams presents a powerful opportunity for advancement, in addition to that from their science: the collection and organization of the Interdisciplinary Team Science tools they have developed or applied, and an evaluation for the context-dependency of their application - i.e. how host organization (e.g. university size, Carnegie Classification System, populations served) and team characteristics (e.g. size, governance structures, career stage, demography) influence teams’ prioritized needs for different kinds of tools. In this Research Coordination Network, the Biology Integration Institutes will work together to pool resources, evaluate the context-dependency of use, and disseminate the collected Toolkit for Interdisciplinary Team Science. This will promote scientific progress across a range of areas where large-team integration is essential. Technical Description: This Research Coordination Network (RCN) unites the Biology Integration Institute (BII) program members to share knowledge, tools and perspectives around interdisciplinary teaming, in a single organized Toolkit, spanning elements from Governance Plans to Social Media Best Practices. It also evaluates how the value to teams of these tools varies based on organizational and team context, across a range of axes (e.g. type of university). Lastly, it disseminates the Toolkit and results of the context-dependency analysis, through a broad network of scientific teams and communities. The Merit of the proposed RCN project is in leveraging the opportunity of the NSF BII Program to harvest the Interdisciplinary Team resources that hundreds of scientists across these organizations have developed or assembled, and ‘field tested’. By then evaluating the relative usefulness and importance of tools across teams, and expanding the evaluation to other large teams that the RCN’s Team Scientists have worked with, the RCN will provide qualitative insights into context-dependency of tool usage, which is a key knowledge gap among team science practitioners. The impacts of the proposed work are to advance teaming across a range of communities and democratize the knowledge of teaming resources, which can present a significant impediment to broadened participation in proposing and leading large science teams. A range of early-career researchers will also be directly involved in implementation of this RCN, and associated training.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.