The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) at UNC-Chapel Hill is excited to announce the next event from Accelerating Collaborative Team Science (ACTS) — a Team Science educational program.
ACTS functions as a connector, bridging the gap between researchers, coordinating centers, and other parties involved in practicing and promoting collaborative team science theory and practical applications across the scientific research landscape. With twenty years of experience coordinating team science efforts, RENCI provides a unique vantage point for those seeking to understand the role of the coordinating center and the challenges specific to large, geographically dispersed scientific teams.
While traditional studies have emphasized the benefits of teamwork, Lingfei Wu, PhD, investigates their overlooked costs in innovation. By leveraging big data and AI tools, Wu identifies disruptive innovation in science and technology, showing how large teams can hinder individual creativity that might otherwise drive breakthrough advancement in the field (Wu et al., 2019, Nature). His analysis reveals that team hierarchy is a key factor, with early-career scientists often playing a supporting role in idea implementation rather than leading the generation of new ideas (Xu et al., 2022, PNAS; Lin et al., 2023, Nature). To deepen this investigation, his team created and analyzed the world’s first observational dataset on author contributions, derived from two million LaTeX source files from preprint websites. This innovative approach reveals how large teams can obscure individual recognition, especially for junior scientists. This issue has become increasingly relevant today, as teams grow ubiquitous across domains, yet not all team members receive recognition for their contributions.
Learn more at renci.org/team-science/.