Teamwork – Integration and Implementation Insights

Developing a conceptual framework to support communication, collaboration and integration

March 31, 2026March 24, 2026

By Hanna Salomon, Jialin Zhang and Sabine Hoffmann.

authors_hanna-salomon_jalin-zhang_sabine-hoffmann — 1. Hanna Salomon (biography)
2. Jialin Zhang (biography)
3. Sabine Hoffmann (biography)

How can the process of developing a conceptual framework in an inter- and transdisciplinary research project itself create valuable space for reflection, alignment, and learning?

What we have found when developing a project-specific conceptual framework is that the process is as important, if not more important, for the research team than the emerging conceptual framework itself. The process provides space and time to discuss and deep-dive into concepts and terms used within the research team leading to much needed discussions and insights for the individual researchers.

The Cultiv8 tool Part 2: Actionable insights for navigating power

March 24, 2026March 19, 2026

By Sobia Khan and Julia E. Moore.

authors_sobia-khan_julia-moore — 1. Sobia Khan (biography)
2. Julia E Moore (biography)

How can we move beyond considering power as the source of implementation challenges and bottlenecks, and instead focus on how we can change or shift the nature of power? How might you experience implementation differently if you knew how to unpack power dynamics and had strategies to navigate power in your implementation practice or research?

This i2Insights contribution is a companion to our previous post on cultivating trust. Trust and power go hand in hand and can’t be dealt with in silos – when considering trust, you also need to consider power and vice versa. The framework presented here helps to understand the dimensions of power and actionable steps for navigating each of these dimensions. Here we describe a second aspect of the Cultiv8 tool to unpack power dynamics.

The Cultiv8 tool Part 1: Actionable insights for cultivating trust

March 19, 2026March 17, 2026

By Julia E. Moore and Sobia Khan.

authors_julia-moore_sobia-khan — 1. Julia E Moore (biography)
2. Sobia Khan (biography)

What are some useful ways of thinking about trust when developing plans to implement your research or strengthen your team? More importantly, what are some practical ways to build trust both as an individual and as an organisation?

Indeed, when asked about some of the most challenging parts of implementing changes and taking part in research collaborations, people often talk about trust. Trust is essential for equity and for working with people in effective ways, but so few of us are trained in how to build trust.

This i2Insights contribution provides a practical approach to thinking about trust, along with actionable steps to cultivate trust to help you achieve your goals, whether you are working with others to implement evidence or looking to strengthen your team dynamics.

A framework for navigating the impact of using artificial intelligence on collaborative research communication

March 24, 2026March 3, 2026

By Faye Miller.

faye-miller_2025 — Faye Miller (biography)

How can research teams recognise when their use of artificial intelligence is affecting their ability to integrate different knowledge and perspectives? How can they navigate the impact of artificial intelligence on their collaborative processes?

When research teams use artificial intelligence in collaborative work, new complexities emerge, especially subtle shifts in communication patterns that can fundamentally alter how teams integrate different perspectives and knowledge forms. Consider an environmental team relying on artificial intelligence summaries across hydrology, ecology, and policy. They might miss crucial disciplinary nuances, or follow its “evidence-based” recommendations that may clash with community priorities.

Three lessons for designing serious games for educational settings

March 3, 2026February 24, 2026

By Alice H. Aubert.

alice-aubert — Alice H. Aubert (biography)

What is Triadic Game Design and what lessons does it provide for designing and analysing serious games in an educational setting?

Triadic Game Design

The Triadic Game Design is a design framework for serious games that defines three essential, interrelated elements—Reality, Meaning, and Play—that need to be integrated and balanced (Harteveld 2011).

Reality ensures the game represents the real world sufficiently (ie., in a valid and reliable way that can be understood by the target players). Subject-matter experts model the Reality in the game focusing on the problem, its influencing factors, and relationships.

Meaning pertains to the game’s purpose and its transference to the real world, to create added value through playing the game.

Navigating power: A partial pragmatic map

December 2, 2025December 2, 2025

By Katie Moon.

In research, how can we start to appreciate unexamined assumptions about what power is, where it resides, how it works, and who holds it, especially how these assumptions influence not only the problems we recognize, but the solutions we pursue? And importantly, who decides? How can we get a better idea of how power informs how we act: what interventions we attempt, whose knowledge we value, whose interests we centre, and what consequences we anticipate?

In this i2Insights contribution I provide an intentionally simplified orienting map that disaggregates power into six dimensions that mirror the ways researchers tend to separate and locate power into distinct domains to rationalise and evaluate interventions. I match these dimensions to three onto-epistemological frames—objective, constructionist, and relational—which were described in a previous i2Insights contribution A guide to ontology, epistemology, and philosophical perspectives for interdisciplinary researchers.

Stories of self, us, and now: A tool for navigating uncertainty

November 25, 2025November 18, 2025

By Gemma Jiang, Alexis Niki, Darius Melvin and Sarah Hind.

authors_jiang_niki_melvin_hind — 1. Gemma Jiang (biography)
2. Alexis Niki (biography)
3. Darius Melvin (biography)
4. Sarah Hind (biography)

In times of uncertainty, especially when the role of research, as well as research funding are under threat, how can research teams effectively respond? How can storytelling help?

We show how Marshall Ganz’s (2009) Stories of Self, Us, and Now framework can move groups from individual experiences of uncertainty (Self) to shared meaning (Us), and toward concrete action steps (Now).

Workshop Context

Leadership team members from a large transdisciplinary, cross-institutional research center, entering the fifth (final) year of their funding cycle, partnered with an external team science expert

Four tips for developing norms for collaboration agreements

October 28, 2025

By Edgar Cardenas.

edgar-cardenas_2025 — Edgar Cardenas (biography)

Norms are the foundational building blocks for collaboration agreements. Hence, we must consider what’s an effective way for teams to develop the norms underpinning a collaboration agreement? How can teams build on experience and avoid getting bogged down when negotiating norms?

In helping teams to develop norms that enable productive collaborations, I use Richard Hackman’s definition of norms as “shared agreements among members about what behaviors are valued in the group, and what behaviors are not. They refer only to behavior, including things members say, not to unexpressed private thoughts and feelings” (Hackman, 2011, p.103).

In other words, norms that help you collaborate better must be grounded by clearly identifiable behaviors and team members must agree to abide by these norms. When developing a norm, the team then has to ask: “Is the behavior clear enough that team members have a shared understanding of the specific behavior?” and “Do we agree to using this norm?”

Six elements of effective co-design

October 7, 2025September 30, 2025

By Will Allen.

What does co-design for tackling complex challenges look like in practice?

Co-design is a collective way of navigating complexity, taking different forms depending on context. The following six elements are a reflection on patterns I’ve seen emerge through practice, especially in settings where multiple perspectives matter.

1. Starting with shared grounding: Creating early alignment through shared values, context, and purpose

In many collaborative projects, there’s a tendency to begin by defining tasks – what needs doing, by whom, and when. But in complex settings, where multiple perspectives and values come into play, it’s often more important to begin with relationships. It helps to understand where people are coming from, what matters to them, and how they see the purpose.

Three social mechanisms leading to fake interdisciplinary collaborations / 形成伪跨学科合作的三种社会形成机制

August 13, 2025August 12, 2025

By Lianghao Dai.

A Chinese version of this post is available

What are fake interdisciplinary collaborations and how do they arise?

Fake interdisciplinary collaborations are a form of performative scientific behaviour that claims to be interdisciplinary but lacks knowledge integration across disciplines. There are three social mechanisms that can result in such fake collaborations.

1. Irresponsible project management

Irresponsible project management has two manifestations:

A tool for developing shared awareness of team member research interests and expertise

August 12, 2025July 22, 2025

By Melanie Bauer, Joshua Roney and Stephen M. Fiore.

authors_melanie-bauer_joshua-roney_stephen-fiore — 1. Melanie Bauer (biography)
2. Joshua Roney (biography)
3. Stephen M. Fiore (biography)

How can team members who have been working together for a while check assumptions, ensuring they are aware of each other’s breadth of expertise and research interests?

We have developed the “Linking-Relinking” tool to facilitate such a process. This tool supports science teams through development of a transactive memory system, which is a form of shared cognition having to do with “who knows what” on a team. Studies continually show that teams that develop an accurate transactive memory system are better able to coordinate their knowledge when working on challenging problems. The Linking-Relinking Tool can support transactive memory system development by helping members determine how accurate their knowledge is of their teammates and calibrate appropriately.

Key leadership practices in transdisciplinary projects

July 8, 2025

By Susanne C. Moser.

susanne-moser — Susanne C. Moser (biography)

When training transdisciplinarians, which leadership skills and practices is it helpful to encourage?

The kind of leadership that someone brings to a transdisciplinary project has decisive implications for how a project unfolds and for its likelihood of success. Conventional thinking about leadership often hinges on unspoken assumptions about hierarchies, power, and the significance and impact of a single individual; it also often implies unspoken ideas about inclusion, assignment, or sharing of rights and responsibilities, and those to praise or blame for any outcomes. At the same time, transdisciplinary research encourages practices that flatten hierarchies; challenge power; promote diversification and inclusion of different disciplines, expertise, and ways of knowing; and question traditional research processes.