Research Collaboration Network for Managing Collaborative Research Centers

University Of Georgia Research Foundation Inc, Athens GA

Investigators

Abstract

In this project the Principal Investigators will build a cross-disciplinary community of scholars and practitioners interested in studying and improving the management of collaborative, distributed scientific research centers. Such centers are foundational to an increasing portion of contemporary science, growing in size and diversifying in scope, but there is a dearth of systematic exploration into the management practices that enable centers to operate effectively and innovate consistently. Collaborative research centers are different than other organizations and subject to a variety of unique pressures, including those associated with infrastructural innovation, distributed software development, and virtual organizing. Although there is an extensive evidence base available to guide different forms of organizational management, it is as yet unclear which elements of management research and practice apply to this particular form of organization and there is an absence of venues for center managers to share and learn how to be more efficient and effective. Through a series of topical workshops, the project will allow center managers to share what works and to get ideas for managing their centers more effectively; in turn organizational scholars will investigate how elements of organizational scholarship can apply to the management of such centers. Further, we will determine how to best disseminate relevant training, best practices, benchmarking, and actionable research associated with center management and explore how such a community can be sustained over time. This project will provide practical support for the directors of collaborative scientific research centers in the form of benchmarking, sharing best practices, guidance and education on managerial issues. Many center managers receive their training within particular scientific disciplines and gain experience managing projects only within those disciplines, but managing such smaller-scale disciplinary projects is fundamentally different from managing larger, cross-disciplinary, distributed research centers. The workshops, materials and networking provided by this project will improve center performance by equipping center managers with the management tools needed to enable scientific advances that address societal needs. Further, the network will enable coordination of scholars from the wide range of disciplines that study issues important to the management of such centers, deepen their engagement with the scientific endeavor and improve the relevance of research results to the effective and efficient management of collaborative research centers. This research collaboration network has the potential to transform cyber-enabled grand challenge communities, radically improve their success, and guide future development of appropriate cyberinfrastructure tools.