Grant proposal writing for teams: Avoiding Frankenstein’s monster

January 8, 2019January 22, 2019 Community Member Processes Author - Lauren Gee, Best practice, Collaboration, Communication, Science of team science, Teams, Terminology, Vision

Community member post by Lauren Gee

Writing a grant proposal as a team has many pluses—a plenitude of viewpoints, a wider wealth of knowledge to pull from, and a larger pool of resources to help edit and finalize the proposal. Too often, however, a team-written proposal turns out as “Frankenstein’s monster”: a mess of disparate parts, thrown onto the page. Agreement is missing throughout, with no consistency in terms of vocabulary, style, or even tense. So how can a team work together, from day one, to write a successful, cohesive proposal—how do we avoid Frankenstein’s monster? Continue reading →

Skilful conversations for integration

November 6, 2018November 20, 2018 Community Member Methods Advocacy, Author - Liz Clarke, Author - Rebecca Freeth, Best practice, Collaboration, Communication, Dialogue, Facilitation, Integration, Interdisciplinarity, Knowledge synthesis, Mutual learning, Participation, Productive disagreement, Transformation

Community member post by Rebecca Freeth and Liz Clarke

Interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle complex problems is challenging! In particular, interdisciplinary communication can be very difficult – how do we bridge the gulf of mutual incomprehension when we are working with people who think and talk so very differently from us? What skills are required when mutual incomprehension escalates into conflict, or thwarts decision making on important issues?

It is often at this point that collaborations lose momentum. In the absence of constructive or productive exchange, working relationships stagnate and people retreat to the places where they feel safest: Continue reading →

Conditions for co-creation

October 9, 2018January 3, 2019 Community Member Processes Author - Adrian Ely, Author - Andy Stirling, Author - Arnim Wiek, Author - Bob Dick, Author - Cristina Zurbriggen, Author - Doug Easterling, Author - Fiona Marshall, Author - Gabriele Bammer, Author - Gerald Midgley, Author - Jeff Foote, Author - Kit Macleod, Author - Machiel Keestra, Author - Maria Hepi, Author - Quassim Cassam, Author - Rawiri Smith, Best practice, Co-creation, Co-production, Collaboration, Communication, Cross-cultural, Dialogue, Diversity, Facilitation, Innovation, Participation, Power, Problem definition, Relationships, Stakeholders, Synthesis blog post, Systemic co-creation, Systems

Community member post by Gabriele Bammer

This is part of a series of occasional “synthesis blog posts” drawing together insights across blog posts on related topics.

What is required for effective co-creation, especially between researchers and stakeholders? In particular, what contributes to a productive environment for co-creation? And what considerations are relevant for deciding who to involve?

Twelve blog posts which have addressed these issues are discussed. Bringing those insights together provides a richer picture of how to achieve effective co-creation.

What makes a productive environment for co-creation?

A good starting point is to be working in an environment and organizational culture that support co-creation and to have sufficient financial, personnel and other resources, as pointed out by Kit Macleod and Arnim Wiek.

Dialogue-based processes are often an important part of co-creation and they need to be established as a generative space, focused on synergy, not conflict. Continue reading →

Language matters in transdisciplinarity

October 2, 2018December 20, 2018 Community Member Processes Author - Tilo Weber, Collaboration, Communication, Cross-cultural, Multilingualism, Mutual learning, Participation, Power, Relationships, Transdisciplinarity

Community member post by Tilo Weber

Why should transdisciplinarians, in particular, care about multilingualism and what can be done to embrace it?

From a linguist’s point of view, I suggest that, in a globalized world, a one language policy is not only problematic from the point of view of fair power relations and equal participation opportunities, but it also weakens science as a whole by excluding ideas, perspectives, and arguments from being voiced and heard.

When people communicate, more is at stake than mere exchange of information, coordination of activities, and joint problem solving. Continue reading →

Long-term collaboration: Beware blaming back and blaming forward

August 21, 2018September 4, 2018 Community Member Processes Accountability, Author - Charles Lines, Collaboration, Communication, Conflict

Community member post by Charles Lines

How can conflict be minimised in long-term collaborations where there is the potential to change priorities over time?

Partners who contributed to creating a collaborative initiative or who joined it early might, quite naturally, prefer to look back at the times when they were most influential and able to shape priorities and contribute significantly to achievements in which they believed.

Also, quite naturally, those who joined a collaborative initiative later may prefer to look forwards towards new approaches and ways of doing things that might increase their influence and enable them to shape priorities and achieve things important to them. Continue reading →

Introducing interdisciplinary postgraduate degrees? Seven meta-considerations

August 7, 2018August 21, 2018 Community Member Education, Institutionalisation Author - Dena Fam, Author - Lesley Hitchens, Author - Michelle Callen, Author - Scott Kelly, Author - Tania Leimbach, Collaboration, Funding, Governance, Higher education, Integration, Interdisciplinarity

Community member post by Dena Fam, Scott Kelly, Tania Leimbach, Lesley Hitchens and Michelle Callen

dena-fam_feb-2018 — Dena Fam (biography)

What is required to plan, introduce and standardize interdisciplinary learning in higher education?

In a two-year process at the University of Technology Sydney we identified seven meta-considerations (Fam et al., 2018). These are based on a literature review of best practice of interdisciplinary programs internationally, as well as widespread consultation and engagement across the university. Each meta-consideration is illustrated by a word cloud and a key quotation from our consultations. Continue reading →

Integration and Implementation Insights

Research resources for understanding and acting on complex real-world problems

Collaboration

Grant proposal writing for teams: Avoiding Frankenstein’s monster

Skilful conversations for integration

Conditions for co-creation

Language matters in transdisciplinarity

Long-term collaboration: Beware blaming back and blaming forward

Introducing interdisciplinary postgraduate degrees? Seven meta-considerations

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