TSAL Toolkit

Enabling Convergent Team Science:

A core feature of the Center’s management plan will be the implementation of best practices for facilitating convergent team science.  These evidence-based practices drawn from the science of team science (SciTS) field (e.g., Bennett et al., 2018; NASEM, 2015; 2019) include the development of a team charter or collaboration plan at the outset of the project, provision of team science training resources for co-investigators and trainees, and formative evaluation over the course of the project to assess progress toward meeting collaborative goals, and consultation to assist team members in refining collaborative processes and outcomes (cf., Hall et al, 2019). The Leadership Team will partner with the Team Scholarship Acceleration Laboratory (TSAL) at UCI (https://tsal.uci.edu) to deliver convergence science training and consultation to team members during each year of the center’s operations. TSAL is led by team science scholars at UCI, Maritza Salazar Campo, and Daniel Stokols and advisors Professors Gary and Judith Olson, (https://tsal.uci.edu/about), each of whom will engage with the team members over the course of the project.  During the start-up phase, Stokols will present team science trainings to the faculty and trainees, and work with them to develop a team charter or collaboration plan (Hall et. al., 2019; Matthieu & Rapp, 2009) to help guide the center’s collaborative processes over the five-year initiative (e.g., specifying agreements for developing and sharing credit on research reports; procedures for resolving collaborative conflicts as they arise; sharing leadership activities across the core institutions to effectively integrate the team’s research activities; developing strategies to leverage the team’s diverse composition to enable maximum innovation; and identifying milestone goals for each year of the project as well as metrics for evaluating progress toward meeting them).  Olson and Olson will consult with < ACRONYM > investigators about technologies and best practices for facilitating online collaboration among spatially remote team members. Salazar-Campo will consult with the teams about ways to enhance interpersonal cohesion and intellectual synergy as they collaborate over the five years of the project.