TEAM SCIENCE
http://teamscience.net/index.html
Solutions to complex problems in the sciences require teams of specialists from diverse backgrounds working across the boundaries of disciplinary silos. The COALESCE project aims to create, evaluate, and disseminate new, durable, readily accessible on-line learning resources to enhance skills needed to perform transdisciplinary, team-based translational research. Diverse audiences, including senior investigators, junior investigators, and institutional development officers can benefit from tools designed to help envision how transdisciplinary collaboration can work and overcome the inevitable communication challenges that arise when working in multidisciplinary teams. All content presented in the modules is grounded in empirical research and theory about the science of team science (SciTS), and the experts interviewed are well-published in that domain. The four modules are intended to help researchers acquire and apply a basic knowledge of team science. Modules 2-4 afford an experiential learning environment where the researcher can adopt different roles and engage virtually in the challenges of team research.
Users should complete the free registration and then launch the Science of Team Science Module, then view the outline by navigating within the site http://teamscience.net/activitybrowser/moduleoneoutline.html
RCMI PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MENTORING INITIATIVE
Junior faculty pilot program awardees will be required to participate in the junior faculty mentoring plan. The Junior Faculty Mentoring initiative will begin at the start of the proposed project period. In order to accommodate the pilot grant award schedule, mentor assignments will occur between March 1 and March 31, prior to the funding start date of April 1. During this time, a mentee may have preliminary discussions with several potential mentors in order to finalize selection of his (her) mentor team. The junior faculty who already have a mentor team will be required to meet with their team to develop a mentoring plan or if they already have a mentoring plan, they will submit it to the Professional Development Key Activity Director for review and comment.
THE JUNIOR FACULTY MENTORING PLAN.
While the details of each mentoring plan may be specific for each mentee, the general features of the plan will include the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team and of the mentee and a schedule of meetings between the mentee and his (her) mentor team. The mentoring plan will also identify the project milestones and identify expected outcomes such as expected publications and/or grant submissions. Mentoring plans (to include a project timeline) will be submitted to the Director of the Professional Development Key Activity for approval who will forward them to the PI for review and comment. Plans regarding pilot grant awardees will also be forwarded to the Pilot Projects Key Activity Director.
The mentoring plans will be for two years which will allow sufficient time for the mentee-mentor relationships to develop. However, it is expected that the mentee-mentor relationships will continue much beyond the assignment period. The two-year interval also accommodates the needs of the junior faculty pilot grant awardees, since the pilot grants also have a two-year project period. The mentor team will review the mentoring plan with the mentee, make any needed recommendations and agree to a meeting or conference call schedule. Meetings will occur quarterly during the first year and bi-annually during the second year. While the initial commitment of the mentor team members will be for two years, it is recognized that interpersonal incompatibilities may necessitate changes in the mentor team prior to completion of the two years.
For more information, please contact the Dr. Pamela Carter- Nolan at pcarter-nolan@howard.edu or Dr. Dexter Lee at dllee@howard.edu.