Introduction
When you’re working on a project, it’s easy to feel like you’re in the driver’s seat. You’re the one who’s going to make all the decisions, right?
But what if we told you there are other people out there who can help you do your job better?
Collaborating with multidisciplinary research teams helps you get more done and makes your job easier.
Collaborate With Multidisciplinary Research Teams: Start With Meetings
To collaborate with multidisciplinary research teams, you need to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently across disciplines. When you’re working with other researchers, it’s important to set up regular meetings so that you can discuss progress made on your research and share ideas. As a researcher, these are the best ways to organize collaborative meetings:
- Set a schedule for regular meetings. If possible, meet at least once per week or every two weeks. Don’t forget to create an agenda ahead of time.
- Discuss new ideas during each session so that everyone stays motivated and excited about their projects. If there’s any conflict between team members’ goals and visions for their research (and who doesn’t have these?), try to resolve them before they turn into conflicts that affect productivity down the road.
Go To Other Researchers’ Talks, Join Their Reading Groups And Use Their Data
This is the final step in creating a strong research community. Collaboration is best when it’s built over a long period of time, with researchers who respect each other’s work and whose relationship has the potential to grow into something beyond information exchange.
For example, if you are interested in one researcher’s data set, you could contact them to ask whether they would be willing to share their data with you or even collaborate on a project using it.
However, before doing so, it is important that you familiarize yourself with their previous publications so that you can talk knowledgeably about their work and show sympathy towards their research aims.
You should also offer some form of reciprocation, such as giving them early access to your own future publications or providing feedback on any findings they may wish to publish based on your shared dataset.
Seek Feedback From People Who Work On Complementary Projects
Ask questions. If you’re unfamiliar with the research team and their project, don’t be afraid to ask questions.
Be curious. Don’t assume that you know everything about the work your partner is doing; listen to them talk about their work and ask clarifying questions if anything is unclear or confusing for you.
Take notes during conversations so that later, when you go back over your notes, it will help trigger memories of what was discussed during a meeting or call (or even just an email exchange).
Research Team Meetings: These meetings are not just opportunities for researchers from different disciplines to get together; they are also times when members of each group can share information about what they’ve been working on in order to generate ideas for how best to collaborate with one another.
This process includes brainstorming sessions where everyone contributes ideas about possible collaborations between the two groups’ projects. And then problem-solving sessions where those ideas translate into plans for future collaboration efforts between these groups.
This might include having some members come visit each other’s labs/homes/offices.
The Collaborative Circle
Meet regularly. The main benefit of meeting regularly is that it helps keep people on task and focused, and it reminds them that they are working toward a common goal.
Don’t make meetings too long or formal. A quick check-in every week or two is plenty; longer meetings can be tiring and will make you less productive during the rest of your day. Keep things informal too: no need for a conference room when there’s a park nearby.
Meetings don’t have to be in person, either—Skype calls can do just fine if someone has an important topic they want to discuss with others but doesn’t want to travel all the way across town (or state).
Finally, don’t feel like these meetings should only focus on work: take advantage of these opportunities to bond over shared interests outside of academia.
The Importance of Humanities Scholars in the Scientific Community
One way to translate complex scientific theories into lay language is by writing articles that explain the theory and its implications.
Let’s say you’re a physicist, and you want to publish an article explaining your new theory of light. You could consult with an English scholar who can help you write in a way that will be accessible to the average reader.
Some other examples of translating complex scientific theories into lay language:
- A historian could write an article about how the discovery of X relates to previous discoveries in related fields.
- A political scientist could write an article about how X changes our understanding of Y (a political issue).
Using Mathematical Models To Visualize Humanities Research
Humanities scholars can collaborate with mathematicians to visualize large-scale data sets that describe the historical context of research areas in which they’re interested.
The mathematician will use algorithms to identify patterns in the data, generate new insights, and help the humanities scholar understand how these patterns fit into a larger picture. In turn, the humanities scholar can use their expertise in textual analysis to help them visualize this information.
The Humanities and Computer Sciences
Humanities scholars can collaborate with computer scientists to develop large-scale databases or digital humanities tools, such as an edition of a text or an archive of documents, that are useful for their research.
For example, the medievalist may want to study the circulation of a certain manuscript across Europe in order to understand how it was read and interpreted by different communities. The computer scientist could help develop software for visualizing this circulation across time and space so that the historian can better understand it.
People In Different Fields Can Learn From One Another’s Types Of Expertise
I think it’s important for people in different fields to learn from one another’s types of expertise. The study of physics is a team sport, and physicists have critical insights into the nature of reality. But no single person can do everything. A physicist can’t even get a grant without talking to an astronomer or biologist, let alone make meaningful progress on his/her own research goals.
On the other hand, if someone wants to use their physics knowledge as part of another field such as medical research, then being able to communicate with others about what you’re doing is essential. The best team is one that has complementary skills.
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed learning who to collaborate with multidisciplinary research teams and how it can benefit all types of organizations.
In the past, researchers were limited to their own fields of study. However, today’s world is much more complex and interconnected than ever before. This means that cross-disciplinary research is becoming increasingly important for solving some of our most pressing problems, such as climate change or poverty. Today, you’ll want to collaborate with multidisciplinary research teams to identify the best way to design your study and collect data.
I hope that this article has inspired you to take part in some interdisciplinary collaboration yourself. Maybe you could even join one of these teams right now.