2.10 Research Spotlight

Love et al. (2021) presented a case study of a highly successful science research project that involved an interdisciplinary team with over 30 students, scientists, and collaborators from five universities, federal, state, and local government agencies working in a group setting, and identified that interpersonal communication significantly improved scientific productivity (Love et al., 2021). Love and colleagues used social network survey, historical social network data, retrospective team survey, interviews, and participant observation to examine scientific productivity, mentoring, connections formed among team members, and skills development.

The 15 year-long extended nature of the research project helped participants with establishing cohesion along with reducing uncertainty and improving reliability of their members (Love et al.,2021). This information was based on mentoring opportunities in the group for upcoming scientists, advice giving between members, along with generation of ideas related to the projects via interpersonal discussions. In addition, members felt that they achieved vigorous creativity in their research abilities due to their impactful and effective interpersonal communication skills among 39 universities, 13 agencies and 11 other organizations. Finally, all members mentioned that interpersonal relationships helped them improve personally and professionally. The team was so successful that they received 33 awards totaling $5.7 million along with 58- peer reviewed publications.