Team Science at BU
Team Science Workshop Developers: Francesca Seta, Assistant Professor of Medicine and ARC co-Director & Katya Ravid, Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry; Director, IBRO and Evans Center
BACKGROUND: In April 2015, the National Academies released a report entitled “Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science”, in which committee experts discussed the importance of Team Science to advance biomedical discoveries, and made recommendations on how to improve the effectiveness of team science, both at individual and institutional level. This report has been presented and discussed at the Science of Team Science annual meeting, hosted by the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, in June 2015. Most of the recommendations are based on research on teams done in non-science fields (business, industry) and experts agreed that more research and tools are needed to evaluate and implement the effectiveness of teams of scientists. Despite these limitations and lack of guidance on best practices, several institutions in US, including BU, have already implemented policies and activities, some of which are discussed below, to stimulate and support multidisciplinary collaborations among their Faculty/investigators. Therefore, BU and its IRBO and CTSI aim at further developing programs and activities to encourage team science, in order to maintain competitive edge and fulfill the university’s mission of excellent education and research, as well as secure grant funding and advance biomedical discoveries.
Diversity is the foundation of a successful team science and yet the biggest challenge faced by scientists working in teams is the diversity of team members. At the same time, however, diversity can create boundaries which can escalate to lack of communication or even conflicts among colleagues from different disciplines, organizations (example, academic versus industry) and countries (example, implementation of large clinical trials) as different investigators might use various assumptions and methods to conduct research and have divergent priorities, expectations and cultural backgrounds. Therefore, it is important that institutions provide scientists from different disciplines with tools and skills to make working in teams efficient and successful.
Visit Team Science at BU for more information.