EAGER GERMINATION Collaborative Research: Leveraging a Research Development Professional Network to Catalyze Statewide Innovative and Societally Relevant Research

In 2022 FL-RDA Secretary Melanie Bauer (NSU) led a collaborative team of FL-RDA President Joshua Roney (UCF), VP Jeanne Viviani (FAU), Immediate Past President Beth Hodges (FSU), and member Leigh Stephens (UWF) with guidance from a team science expert (UCF faculty member Dr. Stephen Fiore) to propose and win $300,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Germination program (Award Nos. 2203470, 2203425, 2203459, 2203442, 2203496). As noted on the project award page for the lead award: 

This project directly addresses gaps in researcher professional development, networking, and support by creating and guiding inter-institutional teams formed around important societal needs and informed by key community stakeholders. It involves a two-stage research intervention that commences with a collaborative learning and ideation event and continues with supported team and project development. The facilitators of these activities will be Research Development (RD) staff from Florida colleges and universities, under the guidance of a faculty expert in team science.

In August 2022 under the umbrella topic of “Florida coastal challenges,” 16 researchers spanning many disciplines and from diverse institutional settings across the state convened at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale. At this three-day event they learned from team science experts and Florida coastal challenge stakeholders on topics relevant to forming and sustaining interdisciplinary research teams. They were guided to form into four research teams, pitch project ideas and associated research questions, and later be supported by the project leaders through continuing virtual discussions, ideation, and production of White Papers.

The leadership team of this grant project aims to produce a model and associated activities and tools for recruiting and supporting geographically-dispersed faculty researchers tackling major societal problems, especially around innovative project creation. One way these teams can be better supported is by Research Development professionals, like those who compose the membership of FloRDA, who often interface with research teams (namely during grant proposal writing) but who could serve a larger role in sparking and sustaining interdisciplinary research teams.

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