Most problems that contemporary society faces require experts from more than one discipline to explore them through research. Traditional fields of knowledge have become so subspecialized that teams, not individuals, are now the units to advance knowledge. Yet institutions and individuals are usually poorly equipped and organized to address these challenges. They often still exist in a dated mindset where different spheres of knowledge exist in hierarchies, not collaborative networks. The National Academies in the United States occasionally convenes committees of experts to address difficult problems through reviews of research findings. This book is one of those, and it thoroughly addresses research around the topic of team science.
Teamwork itself has a long history as a research topic, but mainly outside of scientist workers. Business management theories date back to the late 1800s, and abundant literature exists about how leadership techniques are – or aren’t – effective. So the science of teams is well established, but the science of team science has emerged only recently. The number of team-based grant awards have increased significantly in recent decades, and individual investigators have taken notice. They want to learn about the effective techniques of team science, and this book provides an excellent, comprehensive starting point.
As essentially a 280-page literature review with recommendations, this book touches on a lot of topics. Featured prominently are Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), Science and Technology Centers, and Engineering Research Centers – big grants that advance science through team efforts. I’ve spent most of my career in IT working in these domains.
Personal curiosity encompassing just about everything, not just one’s field, drives research in these areas because one field of knowledge cannot achieve the broad economic and social goals these programs aspire to. For example, one center I worked for sought to advance the polymer processing industry that makes plastics through computer modeling. Another group advances research careers of all biomedical fields. These aren’t simple problems, and teamwork plays a central role as important as individual achievement. If research wants to survive economically and if society wants to address huge problems, we need to rethink how to support those efforts more effectively. This work provides a great starting point.
Universities and non-profit research centers provide obvious audiences for this book. Funding agencies also have an obvious interest. Even companies looking to advance research for-profit can learn about where the trajectory of science is going. For-profit companies also exist to support the infrastructure of research, and they can aid their strategic planning by better grasping current trends. Trainees who want to understand the world around them – the economic structures of power in graduate education – can also grow from this work to see the big picture. Thus, this book touches on a large swath of people who need to know where the world is going.
As an aside, though pricey in print, this book is available for free as a PDF download from the National Academies Press. If possible, I recommend going this route to access on an e-reader to avoid its substantial cost.
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science
By the National Research Council
Edited by Nancy J. Cooke & Margaret L. Hinton
Copyright (c) 2015
National Academies Press
ISBN13 9780309316828
Page Count: 280
Genre: Science, Management
www.amazon.com