Toolbox Workshop for the AccelNet PI Meeting

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

The ability to communicate and collaborate is key to effective research teams and networks. This project focuses on enhancing this ability through a dialogue-based workshop to be held in Washington DC for newly funded members of international network-to-network collaborations as part of an awardee project meeting. The workshop builds on a decade of work by the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative to design and deliver evidence-based facilitated discussions that increase the communicative and collaborative capacity of cross-disciplinary teams. The workshop will advance knowledge along two fronts. First, the reflective discussion among participating members of the networks of networks will increase their own understandings of potential obstacles to project success and opportunities for project development. Second, the extension of the facilitative approach from research teams to larger, distributed networks of networks will provide new insights to science collaborations. The primary goal of this workshop is to provide members of international network-to-network collaborations the opportunity to examine beliefs and values that inform their contributions as collaborators, researchers, and networks members. Workshop participants will represent newly funded projects in the Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaboration program. The workshop will be crafted for each network represented, maximizing the value of the time they spend in dialogue. The workshop will generate: (1) a team-focused conversation about the conceptual foundations of their project that can coordinate their collective thinking going forward; (2) products of a co-creation activity that will contribute to the team's process; (3) a report that offers communication and collaboration recommendations for the team's consideration; (4) a communication-focused survey tool that the teams can use to check in periodically about the status of their collaboration. 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.