Collaborative Research: Multi-team System Design for Maximizing Scientific, Technological, & Policy Innovation

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

There is conflicting evidence about the capacity for scientific collectives (i.e., teams, centers) to seed grand innovations. On the one hand, sociological research convincingly argues for the "dominance of teams in the production of knowledge," particularly in the production of "high-impact" knowledge. On the other hand, research shows that many science teams, particularly the ones most prized for their diverse and distributed "dream teams" are especially prone to underachieving when it comes to publications, patents, and commercialization. This program of research investigates a large number of scientific collectives, from their initial formation to their maturity, in order to uncover the dynamic interplay between structure (i.e., how the collective is designed) and process (i.e., leadership and member interactions). Although collaboration across disciplines and units has been frequently recognized as one of the key obstacles to innovation, research is needed to determine how system design affects the multi-level processes that facilitate collaboration within and across teams and units. This research integrates psychological, organizational, and network science perspectives in a multilevel system model to detail the impact of goals, leadership, and system design on key drivers of collaboration within and across teams in innovation systems. Four empirical studies are being conducted over the course of two years in order to evaluate the impact of variations in the architecture of scientific innovation systems on resulting innovation. This research investigates scientific collectives comprised of students working across two universities, three disciplines, and two countries who must work collaboratively to solve interdisciplinary challenges in environmental sustainability. Broader Impacts. The project develops an evidentiary-base for informing policy on how to manage scientific collaborations to foster innovation. In particular, this project will enable concrete prescriptions about the optimal integration of science and policy. The project identifies the structural and interactional building blocks of successful collaboration in scientific collective in which teams are distributed, are affected by complex social and motivational forces, and interact through virtual technology to innovate using knowledge across temporal and spatial boundaries. This project will yield greater understanding of how to improve, through design and leadership interventions, knowledge generation and policy implementation in multiteam science. A second set of broader impacts of the project concern the education of four communities: (1) future scientists, (2) science policy leaders, (3) academics, and (4) students. This project is enabling the training of future scientists who will work as part of distributed multidisciplinary international science teams. An estimated 10 PhD students and 10 research-oriented undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work directly on this research, engaging in virtual scientific collaboration. The project will create new curricula in distributed multidisciplinary teamwork at Georgia Tech aimed at computing and engineering students. At George Mason, this project will foster a continuing collaboration between instructors in the Environmental Science & Policy and Psychology programs. This collaboration has as its goal the design of integrated curricula to help students understand how to use both principles of ecology and social psychology to foster greater environmental sustainability. Finally, the project contributes to the teamwork training of more than 2,000 Engineering, Ecology, Psychology, and Business students who will participate in this research.