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Interdisciplinary Team Development

Research Development fosters and supports interdisciplinary team science across schools, campuses, and external partners. We offer a wide variety of services and activities to stimulate and sustain successful team science.

Find a Collaborator

Research Development has relationships with faculty from all schools across Northwestern and at our medical affiliates, national lab partners, regional universities, and other institutions.  Please contact us if you are looking for a new collaborator. We identify potential collaborators and initiate conversations as needed.

The following Northwestern networking systems can also be used as a resource:

  • Northwestern Scholars:  A searchable database of expertise across all disciplines at Northwestern University, allowing you to explore the profiles, publications, and grant data of thousands of scholars within Northwestern.
  • Feinberg School of Medicine Faculty Profiles:  If you are looking for a collaborator in the medical school, you can search the Feinberg faculty profiles.

Collaborative Activities

Research Development hosts special catalytic research events that encourage new research initiatives and teams. These include brainstorming sessions, mini-symposiums, collaborative meetups, and networking events. Activities are driven by anticipated federal initiatives, investigator-initiated topics, or the need for networking around a topic area. Please contact us if you are interested in a collaborative event or have a topic idea.

Fund Team Science Research

Research Development identifies team science funding opportunities on a weekly basis. We also work with the Government Relations to anticipate upcoming federal funding opportunities.  Please contact us to discuss potential options for funding your team science project. Northwestern offers seed funding to stimulate team science research.

  • Feinberg Medical School Multi-Investigator Seed Funding Grant: The Feinberg School of Medicine is pleased to announce a new program that will provide seed funding up to $15, 000 (up to $1, 000 for a retreat and up to $14, 000 for application preparation) to initiate new Multi-Investigator Program Project or Center Grant applications involving Feinberg faculty.

Best Practices for Team Science

Research Development offers guidance to help build successful teams and manage common challenges in team science, such as communication barriers and data sharing. There are also several web-based and Northwestern resources available.

  • Team Science Toolkit: If you manage, support, conduct, or study team-based research, the Team Science Toolkit offers more than 500 resources to help maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your work.
  • Team Science Online Learning Modules: These online learning modules are 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.
  • NUCATS Collaboration and Team Science Program:  Northwestern is acknowledged as an international leader in Team Science and now leads Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)-wide initiatives to train multidisciplinary teams.