ADVANCE PLAN IHE: Center for Research, Excellence and Diversity in Team Science (CREDITS)

University Of California-Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

The PLAN-IHE funding track is designed to expand the application of proven-successful gender-equity initiatives for STEM faculty through networked adaptation of a specific program or initiative. Careful evaluation is expected to expand understanding of such initiatives across institutions and institution types. The Center for Research, Excellence, and Diversity in Team Science (CREDITS) is an integrated research and training program to increase and enhance Team Science capacity, effectiveness, and excellence in California. Over the past two decades, Team Science based research has become increasingly central in scientific discovery. Scientific research can be enhanced when informed by diverse points of view and diverse (and thus often broader) research questions. Diversity on teams is known to have positive effects on creativity, innovation, and productivity. Diversity in science and in scientific teams helps ensure scientific questions and research align with social needs and benefits. The CREDITS project will forge collaborative relationships and partnerships among Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems. The program includes three interrelated activities: 1) Annual team science leadership and team formation retreats; 2) Team science and institutional change training/seminar for UC and CSU leadership; and 3) Evaluation and research that will increase our knowledge about team science and diversity and inform CREDITS programming. The CREDITS project links theories about team science in academic STEM careers with theories about barriers to participation and advancement in STEM for women and underrepresented minorities. The benefits of team science to science innovation and individual research careers is becoming well-known, but less is known about gender and science teams, and there has been no explicit research to date on racial-ethnic diversity and team science. CREDITS will begin to study these issues, particularly asking questions about barriers to diverse participation on science teams, how diversity shapes the formation of science teams, and how diversity and team science is implicated in promotion and tenure practices and policies at a variety of institutional types. The CREDITS project will also build the networks of the faculty participating in the workshops which is expected to affect their individual professional outcomes. Women and underrepresented minority scientists are less likely to participate in team science collaborations, and their participation in these networks develops later in their careers.