Collaboration Planning is a process that was developed by Team Science experts at NIH and NSF, and designed to facilitate effective teamwork and collaboration within research teams.

It aims to address challenges and promote successful collaboration by providing a structured framework for planning and communication. During a 90-minute session, your team will participate in a guided exercise that will enable you to develop a tailored plan that tackles the main challenges associated with large scientific collaborations and Team Science.

How can Collaboration Planning benefit your team?

There are many potential benefits!

• Helps your team create, from the beginning, strong team processes which have been shown to result in improved scientific outcomes
• Supports development of a template for writing a multi-PI plan
• Addresses team science-specific review criteria in future grant applications
• Builds skills for research staff and early-stage investigators in team leadership and collaboration

What are the 7 key areas?

1. Team Vision

• Focuses on the team's overarching research question or problem, longer-term vision, what success looks like, and how the team can create a shared vision or framework.

2. People, Roles & Responsibilities

• Defines who is on the team and their skillsets, identifies what expertise is missing, and determines if any guidance for early career researchers is needed.

3. Team Outputs

• Outlines what outputs might arise from the project (e.g., IP, data, manuscripts, etc.) and clarifies authorship or attribution policies.

4. Team Culture

• Highlights team norms and expectations, how to get to know each other and have fun, how to make sure all voices are heard, and how to encourage participation from team members at all levels.

5. Team Processes & Team Functioning

• Defines decision-making processes and how the team can assess whether it is functioning well.

6. Project Management & Infrastructure

• Details how the project will be managed, the role of the project manager, how tasks are assigned and tracked, who will organize meetings and discussion, what shared tools will be used, and how to set up information management.

7. Implementation & Maintenance of the Collaboration Plan

• Emphasizes how the team will use the plan, how to update it, and how resources will be allocated to support team function. To review the questions covered during the session, please refer to the Collaboration Planning Worksheet (pdf).

Is my team eligible?

Most likely, yes!
Examples of teams that may benefit from a Collaboration Planning session:

• Newly formed teams or existing teams launching new research projects or grant proposals
• New investigators leading projects and teams for the first time or experienced investigators leading projects with new teams
• Multidisciplinary research teams of investigators, with complimentary expertise, from across campus, NC TraCS partner institutions, and from other regional institutions
• Translational research teams
• Teams facing challenges such as:
  • Role confusion
  • Conflict
  • Ineffective communication
  • Unclear goals
• Teams who want to become more efficient and effective
• Teams who want to work more collaboratively together

Learn more, or request a Collaboration Planning session

If you would like to learn more or have a facilitated Collaboration Planning session, please complete our request form and Team Science will be in touch with you.