A diverse group of UGA faculty and academic leaders convened in March to examine the university’s path forward in the kind of interdisciplinary, team-based research that increasingly is viewed as the best strategy to solve society’s grand challenges.
Hosted by the Office of Research and the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost and modeled on the UGA Teaching Academy, the inaugural Research Summit was titled “Inquiring into the Nature of Things: Fostering a Culture of Interdisciplinary Research and Scholarship at UGA.”
More than 50 invited faculty and administrators participated over two days, beginning with an evening reception on March 27 in the Delta Innovation Hub, followed by a daylong retreat at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.
Tim Denning, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, opened the Friday retreat with a keynote address, “Collaborative Genius: The Case for Team Research,” that set the tone for the rest of the day, saying the broad, multidisciplinary discussion was “exactly what needs to be done.”
An avid cyclist, Denning used a cycling metaphor to drive home his point that traditional metrics of faculty success — the kind used in retention, promotion and tenure decisions — are not necessarily conducive to team research. Denning showed a slide of two teammates finishing first and second in the Tour de France. The first-place rider, who had been pedaling in a slipstream provided by the other until just before the finish line, enthusiastically pointed to his teammate as they crossed the line in quick succession.
“I’m a big believer in culture,” Denning said. “If we can learn to embrace this kind of team culture in research, that will get us a really long way.
“Big problems are best solved through a mix of expertise,” he continued, citing examples like the Manhattan Project, the Apollo Space Program and the discovery of CRISPR-Cas9. “Federal agencies are interested in funding team research, and universities are responding. While that may be temporarily reduced [in the near term], the concept is not going to be abandoned.”
Denning’s keynote was followed by a series of presentations and panel discussions intended to surface new ideas for facilitating and incentivizing team research at UGA. These sessions touched on such topics as best practices at UGA and other institutions, dynamics of interdisciplinary teams, engaging in community-based research, and others.
“One thing I took away was the importance of rewarding these efforts during promotion and tenure,” said Merryl Alber, director of the UGA Marine Institute and a participant in the panel, “Lessons on Research Culture and Collaboration from UGA and Other Institutions.”
A recurring theme of the day was an emphasis on building truly interdisciplinary teams that include not only multiple STEM perspectives but also expertise from the social sciences, arts and humanities.
“The arts and humanities have the greatest benefit to research collaborations when they are included from the beginning because they bring a different perspective on how to address if not form the research question,” said Jeanette Taylor, vice provost for academic affairs. “UGA can foster broad collaborative teams through targeted events that bring faculty from different disciplines together and by using existing UGA entities like the Willson Center for the Humanities and Arts and the Arts Collaborative as the instrument for seeding collaboration.”
Nate Nibbelink, associate vice president for strategic research growth, oversees a portfolio that includes multiple programs that facilitate and help fund collaborative team initiatives. He led a small-group session that challenged participants to come up with new ideas to support these activities.
“UGA is already a highly collaborative place to work. It’s one of the reasons I love it so much,” Nibbelink said. “There were literally dozens of great ideas shared at the summit, including successful models from other institutions, that we could consider building into our collaborative team initiatives. I look forward to working with our faculty and research leaders around campus to prioritize and implement some of these things in the coming months and years.”
Ideas from the day will be synthesized and condensed into a list of recommendations to be presented to university leadership. Like UGA’s Teaching Academy, the Research Summit itself is intended to continue and grow in future years, providing an annual opportunity for the university to celebrate its research enterprise and steer toward the future.
“What really stood out to me during the Summit was how energized and open our faculty are to collaborating across disciplines,” said Chris King, interim vice president for research. “It’s evident that when we bring different perspectives together, we can spark ideas that none of us could get to on our own. This was a fantastic beginning, and I’m excited to continue building that momentum as we foster a culture of collaboration across UGA.”
