Collaboration across disciplines: Its not rocket science

Guest blog post by Andrea Basche (abasche@iastate.edu)

In the AGU student pop-ups, I most appreciated the opportunity to share my experiences executing collaborative research projects with fellow graduate student colleagues.  My PhD work is part of a large, USDA-funded initiative investigating climate change in Midwest agriculture.  We have lots of folks involved - from agronomists like myself, to economists, to entomologists to sociologists.  It was a little daunting at first for some of us students to figure out where we "fit" in and how we "do" this transdisciplinary work.  I like the word "collaborative" vs. transdisicplinary because it sounds less "boxy" - and we're good at putting ourselves into academic boxes, aren't we!

As I discussed in my pop-up talk, I don't think any of this collaborative work is rocket science.  Basically as students we took some time to develop relationships, get to know each other and learn more about what each other studies and researches.  Then we reflected as a cohort on our shared experiences, and over time put together a roadmap outlining opportunities for collaboration on the project as well as a short perspective paper featured in the Nov/Dec 2014 issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation.  In the paper we discuss the idea that scientists who want to engage in collaborative work benefit from additional skills training - communication, leadership, interpersonal/group dynamics, project management, etc. etc.  Graduate education may need to do some critical reflection and incorporate some of these skills into training programs, if we are serious as a society about tackling the wicked problems facing our planet.

We also believe that keeping the cohort together is key!  As students evolving in our educations in an increasingly collaborative environment, it will be important to learn from collective challenges and successes.

The 2014 cohort of graduate students from the Climate and Sustainable Corn-Based Cropping Systems Coordinated Agriculture Project (sustainablecorn.org) strike a pose for the camera.  Students research a diverse range of topics including agronomy, sociology, entomology, agricultural education, weed science, agricultural engineering and climate science.   Photo credit Maggie McGinty.