RAPID International Type I: Identifying Gaps, Interventions and Opportunities of International Collaboration During the Current COVID-19 Pandemic

持续不断的新冠肺炎疫情不仅在社会经济层面造成了灾难性的破坏，还通过完全中断了旅行、面对面的互动、实验室工作、实地考察和招聘，对国际合作产生了不利影响。了解这场大流行是如何影响国际合作的，对于为项目干预提供信息并培养更具联系和弹性的全球研究社区至关重要。这项研究将从国内和国际研究人员那里收集时间敏感的信息，以了解可能扰乱他们的研究活动的主要问题，他们为解决这些问题而探索的变化，以及他们对在这种不利条件下促进国际伙伴关系的潜在机会的看法。这些数据对于为当前和未来的研究计划提供信息至关重要，这些计划包括加强国际合作的弹性、稳健性和可持续性的国际合作组成部分。通过促进国际研究，这项研究将确保研究人员继续获得专业知识、研究地点、设施和设备，以保持共享的科学进步，以促进美国国民经济、繁荣以及人类健康和福祉。由于设施关闭、安全问题和处方的非药物干预措施，数百名学生被剥夺了参与国际研究的教育和培训机会，这些学生大多来自代表人数较少的少数群体。通过建立强大和有弹性的全球伙伴关系，这项研究将使更广泛的美国学生群体受益并产生影响，其中包括未被充分代表的少数族裔学生。收集的数据还将解释现有的技术基础设施是否需要重大升级以加强国际研究合作。这项研究将侧重于三个合作组成部分：团队动力、项目后勤和管理国际研究成功的研究运作。在为期一年的快速响应工作中，我们将对至少90个涉及全球协作的正在进行的项目进行一系列虚拟结构化访谈和在线调查，确定和评估关键问题和变化/干预措施，并创建与机会对应的差距汇总矩阵。主要目标是特别探讨国际合作对其稳健性、复原力和可持续性不可或缺的方面。我们将针对由国家科学基金会(NSF)以及其他联邦机构以及国际能源署(IEA)等全球机构的多国附属机构资助的国际合作项目。研究结果将提供关键数据，以解释这些条件可能如何影响这些组成部分，揭示关键差距和机会，为使当前和未来的国际研究计划更稳健、更具弹性和更可持续提供方向。它还将解释项目小组为解决大流行病造成的这些问题所作的改变及其效力。数据分析将进一步解释：(1)项目类型、地理位置和项目团队的人口统计属性是否以及在多大程度上缓和了对项目健壮性、复原力和可持续性方面的影响；(2)研究计划或征集活动中固有的某些机制是否帮助或恶化了这些方面；以及(3)某些项目活动是否比其他活动更具矛盾性或挑战性。这些问题的第一手数据和答案将形成进一步研究的知识库，并有助于确定国际研究中需要改进的领域。该奖项反映了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。

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has not just caused catastrophic disruptions at the socio-economic levels but also adversely impacted international collaboration through a complete disruption in travel, face-to-face interactions, lab work, fieldwork, and hiring. Understanding how this pandemic impacted international collaboration is essential to inform program interventions and foster a more connected and resilient global research community. This study will collect time sensitive information from domestic and international researchers to understand major issues that may have disrupted their research activities, changes they explored to address these issues, and their perception on potential opportunities to facilitate international partnerships in such adverse conditions. This data is essential to inform current and future research programs to include international collaboration components that strengthen the resilience, robustness, and sustainability of international collaborations. By facilitating international research, this study will ensure continued access to expertise, research sites, facilities and equipment for researchers to maintain shared scientific progress to boost the U.S. national economy, prosperity, and human health and well-being. Due to facility shut-downs, safety issues and prescribed non-pharmaceutical interventions, hundreds of students, mostly from underrepresented minority groups are deprived of education and training opportunities embedded in international research. By enabling robust and resilient global partnerships, this study will benefit and influence a broader U.S. student population including underrepresented minority students. The collected data will also explain if existing technology infrastructure needs significant upgrades to strengthen international research collaborations.This study will focus on three collaboration components: team dynamics, project logistics and research operations that govern the success of international research. In a one-year rapid response effort, we will conduct a series of virtual structured interviews and online surveys of at least 90 active projects involving global collaboration, identify and evaluate key issues and changes/interventions, and create a summary matrix of gaps mapped to opportunities. The main goal is to particularly explore the aspects of international collaboration that are integral to its robustness, resilience, and sustainability. We will target international collaboration projects funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as other federal agencies and multi-country annexes of global agencies such as the International Energy Agency (IEA). The results will offer critical data to explain how such conditions may have impacted these components, revealing key gaps and opportunities to provide directions for making current as well as future international research programs more robust, resilient and sustainable. It will also explain the changes made by the project teams and their effectiveness to address these issues created by the pandemic. The data analysis will further explain: (1) whether and to what extent the type of project, geographic location and demographic attributes of project teams moderated the impact on the robustness, resilience, and sustainability aspects of the project; (2) if certain mechanisms inherent in research programs or solicitations helped or worsened these aspects; and (3) whether certain project activities were more conflicting or challenging than the others. The first-hand data and answers to these questions will form a knowledge base for further research and help identify the areas of improvement in international research.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.