An early career perspective on encouraging collaborative and interdisciplinary research in ecology

Abstract

There is a growing need for collaborative and interdisciplinary research in addressing global ecological challenges, and early career researchers (ECRs) often play a vital role in such ventures. But despite the desire for such approaches, forming new and interdisciplinary collaborations is risky, and disproportionately so for ECRs, whose perspectives on this topic are rarely heard. Here, we present common perceptions among ECRs regarding opportunities for intra‐ and interdisciplinary collaboration, and barriers preventing such collaboration from taking place. We also discuss possible solutions, and the ecological outcomes of fostering more collaboration. The perceptions discussed have been distilled from a two‐day workshop in New Zealand, aiming to investigate the potential for collaboration between 34 ECRs in distinct ecological disciplines across ten research institutes. Commonality in methodology or research aims was vital for potential collaborations to be considered worthwhile, but differences in spatial or temporal scales were a key disconnect that hindered numerous potential crossovers. Individual connectivity and institutional structures were commonly perceived as barriers to acting collaboratively in general. Specifically, barriers included having a small peer network, lack of access to funding, and concerns over the risk/reward ratio of forming new collaborations. Overcoming barriers will require active, practical support from institutions, funding bodies and mentors, and participants commonly called for specific funding support and the creation of ECR‐focused spaces to better foster collaborative behavior. Fostering interdisciplinary ECR collaborations in ecology was perceived to be useful in creating larger and more useful datasets and tools, and more scalable and transferable models and outcomes. Adopting practices that facilitate more ECR‐led interdisciplinary collaboration will help generate a more integrative understanding of ecological systems globally.

Overcoming the Obstacles Faced by Early Career Researchers in Marine Science: Lessons From the Marine Ecosystem Assessment for the Southern Ocean

“…This disadvantages ECRs that come from non-English speaking countries by limiting their potential output, hindering expression of their ideas and restricting their networking abilities and the reach of their research, along with associated racial biases. Additionally, terminology between disciplines can be a barrier for collaboration across science, policy, and the social sciences (Pannell et al, 2019). We encourage free language training, translation, and copy-editing services to non-native English speakers but also the translation and plain language summaries of key publications.…”

“…These benefits may include promoting diversity, capacity building and greater transference of Southern Ocean knowledge to the next generation by allowing ECRs to draw upon their scientific expertise, experience, and innovation. However, there are numerous obstacles to ECR involvement in such initiatives (Patterson et al, 2013;Sobey et al, 2013;Jaeger-Erben et al, 2018;Pannell et al, 2019). Examples include a lack of relevant research or support networks (Bridle et al, 2013;Macoun and Miller, 2014;Freeman, 2018), scarcity of long-term contracts (Sobey et al, 2013), failure to include contributing ECRs in papers (Maestre, 2019), a lack of travel support (Bradley et al, 2020) and a competitive academic hierarchy (Pannell et al, 2019).…”

Sociality enhances survival in science, especially for female researchers

“…Furthermore, both the positive effects of sociality that we observe, and the issues surrounding collaborative working, are unlikely to be subject-specific. Regardless of discipline, finding and establishing new collaborations is not always straightforward, and working more collaboratively may require overcoming barriers, such as having a small peer network, or lacking access to funding 113 . This may be a particular challenge for female researchers, who represent less of the workforce as seniority increases 9 , and especially since male researchers typically prefer to collaborate with other men 99,106 .…”

“…This may be a particular challenge for female researchers, who represent less of the workforce as seniority increases 9 , and especially since male researchers typically prefer to collaborate with other men 99,106 . Researchers may also have concerns over the risk to reward ratio of forming new collaborations 113 . A larger team of co-authors on a research project entails sharing any reward for the work amongst a larger group of colleagues.…”

From a crisis to an opportunity: Eight insights for doing science in the COVID‐19 era and beyond

“…As data collection is put on hold in many parts of the world, there is an increased opportunity to invest in open access to data, collaborative networks, and research infrastructure (Kituyi, 2020). Collaborative projects can help to improve the quality of ecological research by allowing data sharing (creating larger datasets; Pannel et al., 2019), facilitating problem solving (Goring et al., 2014), and tackling global problems (i.e., global change) while generating a more integrative understanding of ecosystems (Pannel et al., 2019). To initiate new collaborations, we need to be proactive, ask around if colleagues have data they might have had lying in the drawer for a while, seek funding to promote collaborations, or reach out to potential data sources or collaborators whose work looks interesting.…”