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Mean (± SE) of self-reported integration and success ratings by team (Pearson's r = 0.58, p < 0.01) and the relationship between success and integration ratings for individual respondents (size of points
Source publication
Complex socio-environmental challenges require interdisciplinary, team-based research capacity. Graduate students are fundamental to building such capacity, yet formal opportunities for graduate students to develop these capacities and skills are uncommon. This paper presents an assessment of the Graduate Pursuit (GP) program, a formal interdiscipl...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... successful collaboration relies on finding common ground and meaningful integration. Figure 2 demonstrates this tenet as, in general, teams self-reporting high team integration report high team success. This is further demonstrated by a significant positive correlation observed between team success and integration (r = 0.58, p < 0.01). ...
Context 2
... traits. All plots scaled 1 (disagree strongly) to 7 (agree strongly). Colors correspond to each team and are consistent throughout. Teams 3, 5, and 6 self-reported high ratings of team integration and success, whereas teams 1 and 4 self-reported the lowest of both measures. Team 2 self-reported high success but moderate to low integration (see Fig. 2) SD = 1.30), and openness (M = 4.77, SD = 0.76) were reported across participants and within teams (Fig. 3). Openness was significantly correlated with extraversion (r = 0.48) and conscientiousness (r = 0.46), which are further evidenced in the qualitative data as contributing to a team's ability to manage and overcome challenges ...
Context 3
... was significantly correlated with extraversion (r = 0.48) and conscientiousness (r = 0.46), which are further evidenced in the qualitative data as contributing to a team's ability to manage and overcome challenges (Table 5, S26-S31). Teams with members sharing similar personality traits rated the overall success of their project higher compared with teams with more disparate personality traits (Figs. 2 and 3). For example, team 1 ranked lowest in terms of integration and success (Fig. 2) and contained the most diverse personality traits (round shape versus star shaped in Fig. 3). ...
Context 4
... data as contributing to a team's ability to manage and overcome challenges (Table 5, S26-S31). Teams with members sharing similar personality traits rated the overall success of their project higher compared with teams with more disparate personality traits (Figs. 2 and 3). For example, team 1 ranked lowest in terms of integration and success (Fig. 2) and contained the most diverse personality traits (round shape versus star shaped in Fig. ...
Citations
... In turn, individuals who have historically been excluded from the geosciences may begin to envision themselves as a scientist or educator (Walls, 2012). As such, graduate training programs in geosciences should design curricula that build knowledge and skills in cross-disciplinary team science and disciplinary research (Wallen et al., 2019). We highlight the disciplinary research skills here to emphasize that disciplinary knowledge is necessary and valued, but also because evaluation criteria for jobs and funding opportunities for early career scientists still frequently reward qualities of the specialized expert . ...
Responding to the social and environmental challenges of the Anthropocene requires that we integrate science across multiple perspectives, approaches, and disciplines in equitable and culturally responsive ways. While critical zone (CZ) science has made large strides in bridging natural, social, and education science disciplines, the field has been slower to address the lack of diversity, especially in terms of “race” and ethnicity. This means that CZ science and education do not fully reflect all communities they must serve, and representation and access to careers in the field therefore remain limited to mostly white individuals. Despite best intentions, predominantly white science and education teams frequently consider values such as diversity, equity, or inclusion in later stages of work instead of centering these values as the foundation from the outset. Here, we reflect on how our CZ Collaborative Network Project has both struggled with, and is learning to, authentically center and uphold our values in our own work. Our goal is to normalize the concept that culturally responsive CZ science and education requires intentional trust and relationship building, flexibility, and continued learning. To support our evolving work, we have relied on team science practices, and we offer insights into the strategies and tools that help us with our aspiration to center and integrate our values of diversity, equity, and community into team processes.
... Existing studies have explored issues related to interdisciplinary graduate training, involving the overall model [6], exploring from the perspective of socio-physics how the interdisciplinary academic community operates internally [7], and how to improve or guarantee the quality of interdisciplinary graduate training, such as introducing concepts of standardization [8], team concept [9], etc. At the same time, people have found that the Humanities and science generally does not involve a mutual enrichment but Rather a Overseeing of the fundamental premise of the Humanities. ...
... The need for such soft skills has been recognized previously in the conservation sciences (Blickley et al., 2012;Lucas et al., 2017). Requisite skills include communication (e.g., Elliott et al., 2018;Wallen et al., 2019), including through social marketing, in which few practitioners are trained (Robinson et al., 2019); however, graduate programs provide little training in science communication and outreach (Hunnell et al., 2020;Triezenberg et al., 2020). Leadership skills are also crucial (Elliott et al., 2018;Englefield et al., 2019) in achieving conservation goals, but despite their importance in building trust among stakeholders, such competencies are missing from most conservation training (Englefield et al., 2019). ...
... Leadership skills are also crucial (Elliott et al., 2018;Englefield et al., 2019) in achieving conservation goals, but despite their importance in building trust among stakeholders, such competencies are missing from most conservation training (Englefield et al., 2019). Teamwork and collaboration (Chapman et al., 2015;Elliott et al., 2018;Turgeon et al., 2018) with researchers across disciplines (Wallen et al., 2019) and with stakeholders (Turgeon et al., 2018) are also vital. ...
Despite the promise conservation paleobiology holds for using geohistorical data and insights to solve conservation problems, training in the field typically does not equip students to be competent environmental problem solvers. The intention of this perspective piece is to start a conversation about how we might train conservation paleobiology students better, focusing on the competencies needed to promote deep engagement with “wicked” conservation problems that are difficult to solve. Ongoing conversations regarding design of academic programs in sustainability, a field allied with conservation science, can inform our discussion. The sustainability literature has defined an interrelated set of “core competencies” that go beyond general academic competencies to enable real-world sustainability problem solving: systems thinking, temporal thinking, normative thinking, strategic thinking, and interpersonal competence. Conservation paleobiology is usually taught within geology programs, where students are exposed to systems thinking and temporal thinking. However, the remaining competencies typically are absent or insufficiently developed. To infuse these competencies into conservation paleobiology curricula, we recommend: (1) enhancing connections with sustainability programs and encouraging a more cross-disciplinary approach to training; (2) developing a “menu” of concepts and methodologies for each competence from which to choose; and (3) recognizing that different skills are appropriate at different levels of education and experience. The proposed competency-based framework serves as a shared reference that can be used to develop pedagogies to better prepare conservation paleobiology students to navigate the wicked conservation challenges of our time.
... 4 Given the importance of interdisciplinarity in tackling complex scientific challenges, such as those related to translational science, various initiatives have emerged to foster interdisciplinary thinking by intentionally bringing researchers from different disciplines together to collaborate. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11] Much evidence-based guidance has emerged regarding how to successfully facilitate interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration for such initiatives. 3,[12][13][14] In this study, we evaluated the mHealth Training Institutes (mHTI), one such program designed to develop scientists capable of engaging in and spearheading interdisciplinary efforts to develop effective mobile health (mHealth) solutions. ...
Background/Objective
Growing recognition that collaboration among scientists from diverse disciplines fosters the emergence of solutions to complex scientific problems has spurred initiatives to train researchers to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams. Evaluations of collaboration patterns in these initiatives have tended to be cross-sectional, rather than clarifying temporal changes in collaborative dynamics. Mobile health (mHealth), the science of using mobile, wireless devices to improve health outcomes, is a field whose advancement needs interdisciplinary collaboration. The NIH-supported annual mHealth Training Institute (mHTI) was developed to meet that need and provides a unique testbed.
Methods
In this study, we applied a longitudinal social network analysis technique to evaluate how well the program fostered communication among the disciplinarily diverse scholars participating in the 2017−2019 mHTIs. By applying separable temporal exponential random graph models, we investigated the formation and persistence of project-based and fun conversations during the mHTIs.
Results
We found that conversations between scholars of different disciplines were just as likely as conversations within disciplines to form or persist in the 2018 and 2019 mHTI, suggesting that the mHTI achieved its goal of fostering interdisciplinary conversations and could be a model for other team science initiatives; this finding is also true for scholars from different career stages. The presence of team and gender homophily effects in certain years suggested that scholars tended to communicate within the same team or gender.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate the usefulness of longitudinal network models in evaluating team science initiatives while clarifying the processes driving interdisciplinary communications during the mHTIs.
... In interdisciplinary research environments, students can easily establish a collaborative research culture among themselves but connecting to external researchers is difficult. One extreme case from the United States revealed that students felt the pressure to work twice as hard as they were in charge of managing an interdisciplinary research project without any institutional recognition or encouragement (Wallen et al., 2019). ...
We argue that doctoral education in water needs an elevated focus towards educating game changers who can drive innovation and change towards more sustainable futures across academic and non-academic settings. Today's doctoral graduates in water are increasingly employed outside academia, and challenged to understand complex and interconnected systems, to integrate and synthesize information from different disciplines and to lead the way toward increasingly creative, resilient, robust, and socially sustainable solutions. Supervisors are challenged by interdisciplinary research topics and by growing diversity of objectives, too often at the cost of their wellbeing. The need to keep up with the rapid scientific and technological development and floods of big data is pressing. We synthesize key insights from higher education literature and doctoral programs in water research to identify priority actions targeted at four key actor groups: supervisors and supervisees, research group, university, and industry. The actions contribute to appropriate resourcing, enabling an environment for enhanced teamwork practices, and systematic structures for progress. Establishing supporting structures will leverage the much-needed communities of practice involved in co-creating and transforming supervision and education of doctoral students in interdisciplinary water research.
... The ability to conduct research within the bench sciences and engineering is heavily dependent on access to external funds, and graduate and postdoctoral experiences and training to pursue external funds are much more readily available in these areas, than in many social science programs (Kahn et al. 2016). Such opportunities can increase confidence and familiarity with individual and team-based proposals (Wallen et al. 2019). Early career scholars and assistant professors in agricultural and applied economics often face challenges because of a lack of training and mentoring. ...
Learning to write successful grant applications takes significant time and effort. This paper presents knowledge, expertise, and strategies from experienced grant applicants and grant officers across several disciplines to support early career scholars and first-time grant writers, with particular guidance for interdisciplinary collaboration. Many Agricultural and Applied Economists are invited to participate in interdisciplinary grant applications. It is important to fully understand the types of projects, nature of collaboration, co-investigators’ characteristics, expected contributions, anticipated benefits, and valuation of collaborative research by one’s peers before initiating new opportunities. Leading and participating in interdisciplinary teams also requires mentorship, patience, professionalism, and excellent communication beyond the scientific merits. This paper shares practical insights to guide scholars through the grant-writing processes beginning with nurturing a mindset, preparing for a consistent work ethic, actively seeking advice, identifying targeted programs, matching a programs’ priorities, a step-by-step framework for team creation and management, effectively managing time and pressure, and transforming failure into success.
... What has made a difference in my (short, so far) career has been funding and my peers: funding for uncertain projects and strong peer support to test the edge of science. I have been lucky to participate in programs that provide both of these, including the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) graduate pursuits (Wallen et al., 2019) and EcoDAS XIII. In our SESYNC project, for example, along with six fellow graduate students from disciplines across anthropology, ecology, economics, and fisheries sciences, we led a research proposal matching our expertise to pursue a question that none of us could address by ourselves . ...
Differences between the outputs of academic science and those of science policy contribute to a critical science-policy challenge — the inability of academia to sufficiently value either the outputs of the policy process as comparable to academic outputs, or the expertise required to maintain and develop policy. Few colleges and universities in the United States adequately prepare students to become scientists with expertise operating in science-policy spaces. Consequently, most academic scientists lack sufficient training in the policy process, exposure to science diplomacy and capacity to deliver science advice. Science-policy relationships are more than the dichotomised paradox of politicisation of science and the scientisation of politics. Adjustments in how scientists teach, research and engage with policy and policy-makers are necessary to better prepare future generations to address global problems. This article describes currency variances used in these two ecosystems and identifies opportunities to better support science-policy collaborations for more effective research, teaching and service.
