Interdisciplinary team science has long been lauded by policy-makers and practitioners as a wellspring for discovery. Yet, science organizations continually struggle to facilitate interdisciplinary work. In this talk, I will present data from multiple field studies to argue that these struggles can stem from mismatches in how scientists and administrators conceptualize the nature of collaborative work. I will show how, in practice, successful collaborations depend upon intricate communicative labor performed by a constellation of professionals, but organizational policies and investments often undermine this labor. I will then share data from an interdisciplinary institute whose policies and resources incentivized collaborative labor. Comparing qualitative accounts of worker experiences alongside multiple analyses of communication network structures at this institute, I show how acknowledging collaborative work can shape the landscape of collaboration to facilitate interdisciplinarity success. We will close with a discussion of how acknowledging collaborative work can inform team science in terms of professional development opportunities, acknowledging the important role of staff and administrative expertise, and motivating specific science policies and resources.
Register here