Collaboration Resources
The RAC aims to build teams’ collaborative capacities. The below resources represent a selection of tools and models we’ve found to be useful.
Equitable Collaborations
Bringing an EDI Lens to Research
Title: Guide on integrating equity, diversity and inclusion considerations in research
Source: Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Description: This webpage provides guidance on how to apply a critical EDI lens through the planning of research at each stage of the process and for building and maintaining a high-performing diverse team. It also includes a list of resources, references, and a glossary.
Type and Length: Guide | ~ 24 pages
Title: Why Am I Always Being Researched?
Source: Chicago Beyond
Description: Chicago Beyond, an impact investor group, created this guidebook to help shift the power dynamic and the way community organizations, researchers, and funders uncover knowledge together. It is an equity-based approach to research that offers one way in which we can restore communities as authors and owners.
Type and Length: Guide | 112 pages | Pages 30-105 are subdivided for different readers: community orgs, researchers, and funders
Power, Positionality, and Bias
Title: Risk and Equity Matrix
Source: MIT Gov/Lab
Description: The objective of the matrix is to ensure that risks and benefits of research collaborations are distributed in a more equitable manner.
Type and Length: Guide + Tool | 23 pages
Title: Understanding researcher positionality using the insider-outsider continuum
Source: Pedersen & Nikulina | i2Insights
Description: Presents an insider-outsider continuum that provides language for researchers to talk about positionality. They explain six different positionalities researchers can have.
Type and Length: Blog post| ~ 4 pages
Title: Implicit Bias Project
Source: Project Implicit is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and collaborative of researchers
Description: The mission of Project Implicit is to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet. Project Implicit scientists produce high-impact research that forms the basis of our scientific knowledge about bias and disparities.
Type and Length: Tests | Each test can take several minutes to complete.
Team Building
Developing Healthy Team Dynamics
Title: Collaboration and Team Science: A Field Guide
Source: L. Michelle Bennett, Howard Gadlin, Christophe Marchand | HHS & NIH
Description: Why do some research teams achieve a state of high functioning while others do not? What factors maximize a research team’s productivity or effectiveness? How can research teams best be recognized, reviewed, and rewarded? This field guide was developed to help answer these and other questions. It can be read in any order.
Type and Length: Guide | 139 pages | Each of the 13 modules stands alone and is subdivided into small sections (1-3pp) that can be used individually.
Title: How to have difficult conversations: A practical guide for academic & practitioner research collabs
Source: MIT Gov/Lab
Description: The guide is structured in a series of questions meant to clarify priorities and spell out assumptions. Each section includes questions that both partners should consider together, with specific lists aimed at academics and practitioners.
Type and Length: Guide | 26 pages
Title: Collaboration Dialogue Tool
Source: L. Michelle Bennett, Edgar Cardenas and Michael O’Rourke (Toolbox Dialogue Initiative)
Description: This series of reflective questions is intended to facilitate dialogue about shared rules of collaboration and to open pathways for anticipating, identifying, and addressing obstacles as they arise. It is a generic version of one originally developed for the NSF Convergence Accelerator Program. The process is based on that used by the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative.
Type and Length: Guide + Prompts | 20 pages
Conflict Approaches
Title: Conflict in your research group? Here are four strategies for finding a resolution
Source: Science
Description: This article is focused on conflicts in university labs. The four strategies are as follows: Assume Good Intentions, Listen Carefully, Assess Severity, and Be Open to Change.
Type and Length: Article | ~ 3 pages
Title: Dealing with differences in interests through principled negotiation
Source: i2Insights
Description: This article is focused on principled negotiation, also known as negotiation on the merits or ‘getting to yes.’ The author claims principled negotiation is a useful way of managing conflicting interests with the aim is to find a mutually agreeable fair solution through a problem solving approach.
Type and Length: Blog post | ~ 3 pages
Title: Liberating Structures
Source: Liberating Structures
Description: This website offers a suite of facilitation tools and exercises that help groups work together.
Type and Length: Website | 33 exercises
Project Development and Management
Team Agreements
Title: An Ethos of Care
Source: Emily Skop, Martina Angela Caretta, Caroline Faria and Jessi L. Smith | Inside Higher Ed
Description: The authors offer other scholars engaged in research collaborations an “ethos of care pledge” to set new norms and new strategies around collaboration.
Type and Length: Blog post + Pledge | ~ 3 pages
Title: Questions to Consider When Drafting Your Collaboration Agreement
Source: NIH Office of the Ombudsman | Virginia Tech Toolkit
Description: List of 20 questions teams can use to address core collaboration issues. Themes include goals and vision, responsibilities, authorship and credit, contingencies and communication, and conflicts of interest.
Type and Length: List of 20 questions | 2 pages
Title: Preempting Discord: Prenuptial Agreements for Scientists
Source: Gadlin et al. | HHS | Virginia Tech Toolkit
Description: This document lists questions about core issues that are common to collaborative research projects. It also includes an intro to the topic of authorship disputes and how to avoid them.
Type and Length: Article + Questions | ~ 2 pages
Title: How to Write a Collaboration Plan
Source: Hall et al. | Virginia Tech Toolkit
Description: Provides guidance for investigators on key factors to consider in preparation for a collaborative initiative, including: rationale for team approach and team configuration; collaboration readiness; technological readiness; team functioning; communication & coordination; leadership, management, and administration; conflict prevention and management; training; quality improvement activities; and budget/resource allocation.
Type and Length: Guide |8 pages
Team Meetings
Title: First Meeting Guide
Source: National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
Description: This guide has tips on how to structure and make the most of your first interdisciplinary team meeting.
Type and Length: Guide | 4 pages
Title: Facilitating Interdisciplinary Meetings: A Practical Guide
Source: National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center
Description: This guide offers a practical introduction to approaches and practices to facilitate meetings, trainings, and workshops to help improve teamwork processes. It touches on roles, pre-meeting steps, meeting techniques, and post-meeting activities.
Length and Type:Guide | 34 pages
Assessment and Evaluation
Title: Centering Equity in Collective Impact
Source: John Kania, Junious Williams, Paul Schmitz, Sheri Brady, Mark Kramer & Jennifer Splansky Juster | Stanford Social Innovation Review
Description: This article describes collective impact as an evaluation model and explores how it has been used and how equity can be centered within the model.
Type and Length: Article | ~ 25 pages
Title: Theory of change in inter- and transdisciplinary research
Source: Josefa Kny, Sabine Hoffmann, Emilia Nagy, and Martina Schäfer | i2Insights
Description: This article provides a glimpse into different functions that theory of change can fulfill. The authors claim that, although theory of change was not developed for inter- and transdisciplinary research, both the process and the product of theory of change are relevant for such investigations.
Type and Length: Article | ~ 2 pages
Title: Tools to Increase Trust
Source: Virginia Tech
Description: This webpage contains guides to debriefing models and team and self-assessment strategies.
Type and Length:
- After-Action Review Guide (USAID) | 3 pages
- Guide to After Action Reviews from the Center of Evidence-Based Management | 12 pages
- Collaboration Self-Assessment Tool | 12 pages | Journal article (9 pages) + Tool (3 pages)
- Collaboration: A Self-Evaluation Tool | 4 pages
- New Jersey Department of Education Collaborative Teams Self-Assessment | Tool | 4 pages
- Prevention Institute’s Collaboration Assessment Tool | 2 pages
Other Social Impact Resources
- Outputs, Outcomes and Impact: Stannard-Stockton 2010
- Academic versus Societal Impact: Brenninkmeijer 2022
- Societal Value: Lindgreen et al. 2021
- Social Impact & Social Impact Assessment: Interorganizational Committee on Guidelines and Principles for Social Impact Investment 1994
Data Sharing Agreements
Title: Sample Tribal Resolution
Source: UW Indigenous Wellness Research Institute
Description: This template formalizes the parties’ understanding of how data will be collected, maintained, and used during the study. It consists of a data sharing and ownership agreement between tribes and universities.
Type and Length: Sample Tribal Resolution | 1 page
Additional Resources
Toolkits and Resource Lists
- Conduct Team Science Resources (National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center – SESYNC): SESYNC brings together the science of the natural world with the science of social systems and decision making to solve problems at the human-environment interface. They offer resources on team science, including videos, case studies, guides, and peer-reviewed publications.
- EDI in Research Resource Library (UBC): This is a list of resources organized into 4 categories: EDI in Research Design, EDI in Research in Research Practice, Institutional/Funder Policies, and Principles of EDI Research.
- Engaged Scholarship Tools (MIT Gov/Lab): This file includes elements from the Difficult Conversations Questions Guide, the Risk and Equity Matrix, and the Workplan Template.
- Inclusive Collaboration Toolkit (Center for Research, Excellence, and Diversity in Team Science, CREDITS): A curated set of resources related to DEI on science teams for research development professionals and collaborative team members. Resources include publications, examples, and models to address the challenges of diversity on science teams.
- Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute: This toolbox provides practical knowledge that addresses specific and common team needs. It is organized according to the following categories: team formation, team launch, team maturation and team assessment.
- Positionality in Hazards and Disaster Research and Practice (Natural Hazards Center | NSF): This Training Module is composed of 4 lessons regarding positionality, with many toolkits and strategies.
- Power: A Practical Guide for Facilitating Social Change (Carnegie UK Trust and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation): A guide for facilitating power analyses.
- Research Templates (UW Indigenous Wellness Research Institute): This website offers templates for a Data Use Agreement, a Code of Ethics & Integrity, Publication and Dissemination Guidelines, and Student Involvement in the Research Team. It also includes a Sample Tribal Resolution and a Sample Research Protocol Code.
- Team Collaboration Agreements (Virginia Tech): This webpage contains a document with guidance for writing a collaboration plan; a poster that identifies ten components as the recommended core content for collaboration plans; an example of a collaboration agreement; and other resources.
- Team Science Toolkit (NIH): The toolkit resources are getting updated and are not available at this time, but several publications related to team science are available. These publications cover topics such as evidence-based principles for cross-disciplinary science, the role of team personality in team effectiveness, etc.
- Team Science Tools (University of Cincinnati): This toolkit includes Team Science articles, guides, tools, links, presentations, and videos. Examples of tools include a team charter template, a self-assessment tool, and a team task and relationship conflict scale.
- Toolbox Dialogue Initiative (TDI): TDI is a collective that conducts research in combination with its facilitation of communication and collaboration in cross-disciplinary research and practice. This page includes a variety of publications (primarily peer-reviewed articles), often with an emphasis on philosophical aspects of these collaborative endeavors.
- Transdisciplinary Field Guide: Methods and Resources (Utrecht University): This toolkit offers steps to designing your transdisciplinary process and methods that can be useful. It includes practical and academic resources, as well as tips on how to avoid common pitfalls.
Publications and Additional Resources
- A review of Indigenous knowledge and participation in environmental monitoring (Thompson et al., 2020 | Ecology and Society): This article examines the following questions: How have Indigenous peoples participated in environmental monitoring? How has their participation influenced monitoring objectives, indicators, methods, and monitoring outcomes? It also summarizes how this literature discussed power, governance, and the use of both Indigenous and scientific knowledge in environmental monitoring efforts.
- Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work (Hanleybrownet al. | SSIR): This article provides updated, in-depth guidance on the conditions and phases of Collective Impact.
- Collaboration and Team Science: From Theory to Practice (NIH): Through analysis of in-depth interviews with members of highly successful research teams and others that did not meet their goals or ended due to conflicts, the authors identified key elements for team success.
- Conducting Research with Tribal Communities: Sovereignty, Ethics and Data-Sharing Issues (Environmental Health Perspectives): This paper reviews sovereignty, ethics, and data-sharing considerations regarding community-based research with tribal nations. It presents a model material and data-sharing agreement that meets tribal and university requirements.
- Deconstructing insider–outsider researcher positionality (Bukamal, 2022 | British Journal of Special Education): In this article, the author deconstructs scenarios from a reflexive diary and interprets how these scenarios respond to an insider–outsider positionality that is determined by their cultural identity, profession, gender and educational background.
- Documents, Papers, and Publications about Indigenous Data Sovereignty (GIDA – Global Indigenous Alliance): This list of resources includes several publications about themes such as tribal data governance, decolonizing attribution, indigenous methodologies.
- Employing Philosophical Dialogue in Collaborative Science (Sanford D. Eigenbrode et al. | TDI): This article presents a “toolbox for philosophical dialogue,” consisting of a set of questions for self-examination that collaborators can use to identify and address their philosophical disparities and commonalities. Find the toolbox PDF here.
- Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science (National Research Council): This popular report discusses some of the processes and products of team science, and the circumstances under which team-based research is most likely to yield intellectually novel discoveries and demonstrable improvements in contemporary problems.
- Externalizing implicit expectations and assumptions in transdisciplinary research (Radinger-Peer et al., 2023): This article presents a list of 34 Q-statements that can be used to elucidate varying expectations and assumptions about transdisciplinary research collaboration.
- Feminist Data Protection (Internet Policy Review): This publication considers how data protection might be understood, critiqued and possibly reimagined in feminist terms.
- Framework for a Data Sharing Agreement (The Alberta First Nations Information Governance Centre): This is a guideline of considerations to follow when developing your own data sharing agreement.
- Lessons and Levers for University Collaborations with Governmental and Community Partners (Davison and Way, 2021): This report synthesizes the lessons learned and impacts realized in the Bullitt Foundations Thought Leadership and Innovation projects.
- Managing the wicked problem of transdisciplinary team formation in socio-ecological systems (Norris et al | Toolbox Dialogue Initiative): This study proposes that the formation of transdisciplinary teams is itself a wicked problem, and recommends a set of strategies for managing the wickedness of team formation.
- Mapping the integrative field: taking stock of socio-technical collaborations (Fischer et al | TDI): This study provides a framework for comparing the forms, means, and ends of different approaches to socio-technical integration.
- Moving the Science of Team Science Forward: Collaboration and Creativity (NIH): This piece assesses a variety of conceptual issues that must be addressed to inform future team science initiatives (e.g., examining ways to categorize and measure collaborative efforts.)
- Positionality practices and dimensions of impact on equity research: A collaborative inquiry and call to the community (Secules et al, 2021): The authors find that positionality impacts six aspects of research: research topic, epistemology, ontology, methodology, relation to participants, and communication.
- Science benefits from diversity (Nature, 2018): This article claims that “lab groups, departments, universities and national funders should encourage participation in science from as many sectors of the population as possible. It’s the right thing to do — both morally and to help build a sustainable future for research that truly represents society.”