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

需要跨学科团队科学来应对人类面临的众多挑战，从流行病到能源部门的转型，再到我们人类有史以来面临的最大挑战，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集成研究所，以推进生物科学优先领域的创新，目前有13个研究所获得资助。除了他们的科学之外，这些团队的集合提供了一个强大的进步机会：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-即主办组织如何（如大学规模、卡内基分类系统、服务人口）和团队特征（例如规模、治理结构、职业阶段、人口统计学）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，评估使用的背景依赖性，并传播收集的跨学科团队科学工具包。这将在一系列大团队整合至关重要的领域促进科学进步。技术说明：该研究协调网络（RCN）将生物整合研究所（BII）计划成员联合起来，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如何根据组织和团队背景在一系列轴（例如大学类型）上发生变化。 最后，它通过广泛的科学团队和社区网络传播工具包和背景依赖性分析结果。拟议的RCN项目的优点是利用NSF BII计划的机会来收获跨学科团队资源，这些资源是由这些组织的数百名科学家开发或组装的，并经过“现场测试”。 然后，通过评估跨团队工具的相对有用性和重要性，并将评估扩展到RCN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。 拟议工作的影响是促进一系列社区的团队合作，并使团队资源的知识民主化，这可能会严重阻碍扩大参与提议和领导大型科学团队。一系列的早期职业研究人员也将直接参与该RCN的实施和相关的培训。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.