A case study of strategies for fostering international, interdisciplinary research.

Published in Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Vol. 6(2):313-323 
Authors

Halvorsen, K.E., Knowlton, J.L., Mayer, A.S., Phifer, C.C., Martins, T., Pischke, E.C., Propato, T.S., Cavigliasso, P., Garcia, C., Chiappe, M., Eastmond, A., Licata, J., Kuhlberg, M., Medeiros, R., Picasso, V., Mendez, G., Primo, P., Frado, A., Veron, S.R. and Dunn, J.L.
Publication year 2016
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0336-7
Affiliations
  • Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA
  • Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Conservation International, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, BuenosAires, Argentina
  • Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Unidad Morelia, Morelia, Mexico
  • Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay
  • Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Yucatán, Mérida, Mexico
  • Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada
  • University of Buenos Aires, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, Buenos Aires, Argentina

 
IAI Program

CRN3
IAI Project CRN3105
Keywords
Teamscience
Scientific team
Group work
Sustainability transitions
Transition management
Transdisciplinary

Abstract

Bringing together and successfully managing a highly interdisciplinary (ID) research team of socioeconomic, biophysical,and engineering scientists is highly challenging, particularly when that team includes 20 scientists and students across six countries. This paper reports on the results of evaluating the success of such a team as it studies the socioecological impacts of bioenergy development across the Americas. We find that the team has succeeded according to several different metrics. We demonstrate that the literature on accelerated sustainability transitions and small group team creation, development, and management holds valuable lessons for the success of ID teams.