Understanding Team Science as Complex Collaborative Problem Solving

Learn to lead high-performance collaborative research teams

Cross-disciplinary research has been identified as a means to engage in expansive studies that address a broad array of complex and interacting variables. Team Science is seen as a promising approach to accelerate scientific innovation and the translation of scientific findings into effective policies and practices.

Team science is a collaborative effort to address a scientific challenge that leverages the strengths and expertise of professionals trained in different fields. Increasingly, scientists across many disciplines and settings are engaging in team-based research initiatives. Funding agencies and programs have begun to codify team science as an outcome of large-scale grant opportunities. The success of team science proposal is influenced by a variety of contextual environmental influences and the ability of researchers to define and measure team-metrics of success.

We invite you to become a leader in the science of team science. This train-the-trainer style workshop will teach you to lead team science initiatives, and define measures of success. All are welcome, however, upper-level PhD students, post-doctoral faculty, research development professionals, and junior faculty are especially encouraged to register.

Part 1: Fundamentals of the Science of Team Science

What do we mean by team science?

Why do you need to understand (and do) team science?

Part 2. Understanding and Assessing Teamwork Processes

What are fundamental teamwork processes

How do teams assess and improve performance?

Part 3. Preparing for Interdisciplinary Idea Integration

How do you prepare for that first grant proposal meeting?

What do funders expect from interdisciplinary research?

How do you develop interdisciplinary research insights?

What’s the difference between your research plan and your teamwork plan?

Meet the Trainer

Dr. Stephen M. Fiore is Director, Cognitive Sciences Laboratory, and Professor with the University of Central Florida’s Cognitive Sciences Program in the Department of Philosophy and Institute for Simulation & Training. He maintains a multidisciplinary research interest that incorporates aspects of the cognitive, social, organizational, and computational sciences in the investigation of learning and performance in individuals and teams. His primary area of research is the interdisciplinary study of complex collaborative cognition and the understanding of how humans interact socially and with technology. Dr. Fiore has been a visiting scholar for the study of shared and extended cognition at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in Lyon, France (2010) and he was a member of the expert panel for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which focused on collaborative problem solving skills. He has contributed to working groups for the National Academies of Sciences in understanding and measuring “21st Century Skills” and was a committee member of their “Science of Team Science” consensus study. As Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator he has helped to secure and manage approximately $20 million in research funding. He is co-author of a book on “Accelerating Expertise” (2013) and is a co-editor of volumes on Shared Cognition (2012), Macrocognition in Teams (2008), Distributed Training (2007), and Team Cognition (2004). Dr. Fiore has also co-authored over 200 scholarly publications in the area of learning, memory, and problem solving on individuals and groups.