Research collaboration and team science

Build effective interdisciplinary research teams. Team formation: 1. Identify complementary expertise needed for research questions. 2. Include diverse perspectives: disciplinary, methodological, demographic. 3. Define roles clearly: PI, co-investigators, data manager, statistician. 4. Establish governance structure: steering committee, working groups. Communication strategies: 1. Regular meetings with clear agendas and action items. 2. Shared workspace: Box, Slack, or Microsoft Teams for collaboration. 3. Project management tools: Asana, Trello for task tracking. 4. Documentation: meeting minutes, decision logs, protocol changes. Intellectual property: 1. Authorship agreements early: contribution thresholds, order determination. 2. Data ownership and sharing agreements. 3. Publication timeline and journal selection process. Common challenges: 1. Different disciplinary cultures and vocabularies. 2. Competing priorities and timelines. 3. Geographic distance. Solutions: team science training, conflict resolution protocols, regular check-ins.