[Sigkm-l] Funding opportunity: Building resources for action-oriented team science through syntheses of practices and theories. Closes March 9, 2015

[Caryn Anderson]

Please forgive cross-posting.

For information scientists interested in making research and research
methods more accessible across disciplines, particularly for complex social
problems, the opportunity below may be of interest.  (full RFP on SESYNC
website
<http://www.sesync.org/opportunities/enhancing-socio-environmental-research-education>
)



I have worked with Professor Bammer in her efforts to collate, organize and
develop theory and methods for transdisciplinary research.  I outlined some
of the philosophies that underpin this funding opportunity in an 2008 ASIST
Bulletin article
<http://www.asist.org/Bulletin/Oct-08/OctNov08_Anderson.pdf>.   Her
book on Research
Integration Using Dialogue Methods
<http://press.anu.edu.au/titles/dialogue_methods_citation/> is an example
of one kind of research methods synthesis.



Professor Bammer is very keen to see a team of information scientists
participate in this effort to synthesize research methods and has asked to
share this RFP with ASIST members.  The expectation is that multiple teams
in different subject areas will generate aggregated transdisciplinary
research methods toolkits, databases, and/or curricula for training
inter-disciplinary research teams.  An information science team should be
able to assist with determining how to organize and distribute such
information (the output of all the teams supported by this SESYNC project)
for effective discovery and use by all researchers working on complex
social problems.  Information science teams may also be able to design
strategies for finding and aggregating methods across disciplines generally
or in support of the other teams in the project.



This may be of particular interest to information scientists focused on
scholarly communication, information needs/use, knowledge management, and
science and technical information.  There is also potential for
classification and digital libraries specialists.  Funding is for travel,
accommodation & meals for teams to meet at SESYNC in Maryland multiple
times over two years.



Cheers,



Caryn Anderson

Research Information Specialist & PhD Student

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

clndrsn2 at illinois.edu

caryn.anderson at gmail.com



------------------------------



*Funding opportunity: Building resources for action-oriented team science
through syntheses of practices and theories. Closes March 9, 2015*

*Details:*
http://www.sesync.org/opportunities/enhancing-socio-environmental-research-education



Proposals are invited for synthesis projects focused on tools, methods, and
other practices applicable to actionable team research on
socio-environmental problems. Multiple teams will be supported, and
together their syntheses will contribute towards the development of new
toolkits, roadmaps, curricula, and other practical advice.



Effective team science is key to finding solutions to socio-environmental
problems. Many tools have been developed for integrating ideas, data, and
methods across the diverse disciplines involved when researching complex
problems. Similarly, practices have been identified that facilitate the
linkage of research results with informed policy decisions. Relatively few
of these tools and practices have been assessed and optimized for
addressing socio-environmental challenges. We invite proposals for
synthesis and refinement of the tools and practices of team science from
all disciplinary sources for use in socio-environmental applications.



The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) will fund up to
six international teams (up to 12 members each) to meet over two years
(approximately four three-day meetings per team) to analyze, evaluate, and
synthesize the practices, tools, methods, and strategies of
transdisciplinary team science to significantly improve research teams’
effectiveness at understanding socio-environmental problems and informing
socio-environmental decisions. The focus may be on improving research
methods, on educating new generations of researchers, or both.



This call is open to researchers and educators with expertise in all
aspects of the practice and scholarship of actionable team research,
including diverse areas of environmental and social investigation and other
areas that have not traditionally engaged in socio-environmental contexts,
such as public health, international development, security, or other
research areas. Successful proposals could include participants from a
variety of relevant disciplines including environmental science, ecology,
social psychology, systemic intervention, political science, organizational
management, implementation science, cognitive science, operations
research, information
science, and computer science.



*Purpose*



The aim of the synthesis teams to be established under this proposal is to
aggregate and synthesize the tools, methods, and other practices used in
action-oriented team research as applicable to socio-environmental science.
We encourage proposals that address issues across all stages throughout the
lifecycle of an interdisciplinary project from problem formulation to
approach design, data gathering analysis and synthesis, publication and
other dissemination, implementation, and assessment, although individual
teams might only work on a subset of these. Many types or combinations of
synthesis approaches are possible and many sources of data for aggregation
and analysis are appropriate, including diverse case study examples,
concepts, methodologies, procedures, protocols, computational applications,
or theoretical foundations.



*Additional Info*



Visit
http://www.sesync.org/opportunities/enhancing-socio-environmental-research-education
for complete details. Proposals must be received by March 9, 2015, at 5 p.m.
Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).



*Questions?*



For general inquiries, or contacts from individuals who are interested but
are not currently part of a team, please contact Gabriele Bammer (
Gabriele.Bammer at anu.edu.au) or David Hawthorne (dhawthorne at sesync.org).
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