By Sanford D. Eigenbrode, Lois Wright Morton, and Timothy Martin
What’s required to lead exceptionally large projects involving many dozens of participants from various scientific disciplines (including biophysical, social, and economic), multiple stakeholders, and efforts spanning a gamut from discovery to implementation? Such projects are common when investigating social-ecological systems which are inherently complex and large in spatial and temporal scales. Problems are commonly multifaceted, with incomplete or apparently contradictory knowledge, stakeholders with divergent positions, and large economic or social consequences.
Leaders of such very large projects confront unique challenges in addition to those inherent to directing interdisciplinary efforts: