The NIH/NINDS Team Science Seminar Series facilitates knowledge generation and translation through a dialogical approach to projects, methods, and perspectives at the intersection of biomedical and team science.
Despite the growing call for interdisciplinary collaborative science, the field of team science is still evolving and the facilitators and barriers to interdisciplinary integration are still being elucidated. Convergence research is situated in solving complex problems through the intentional integration of diverse perspectives to achieve meaningful change. This event discussed various perspectives and approaches towards conducting convergence research.
Agenda: NIH/NINDS Team Science Seminar #2
Introduction: Convergence Research and Complex Science (12:00-12:05)
Cory Kelly | cory.kelly@nih.gov |NINDS Program Officer & COMBINE Co-Lead
Funders’ Perspective: Supporting Team Science at NINDS (12:05-12:10)
Dr. Karen David | karen.david@nih.gov |NINDS/BRAIN Program Officer & COMBINE Co-Lead
Career Impediments to Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research (12:10-12:30)
Dr. Bruce Weinberg | weinberg.27@osu.edu
Eric Byron Fix-Monda Endowed Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, The Ohio State University
Interdisciplinary, translational, team science is widely seen as critical for addressing the most pressing challenges affecting public health, leading institutions to seek to promote interdisciplinary research. Under these circumstances, one would expect the demand for interdisciplinary, translational, team researchers, and their career outcomes, to be exceptionally strong. We discuss a recent study that documents career impediments facing interdisciplinary biomedical researchers and the detrimental impact of these factors on interdisciplinary research.
A Curious Case of the ‘Convergence Shortcut’ in the Human Brain Science Research Ecosystem circa 2013 (12:30-12:50)
Dr. Alex Peterson | apetersen3@ucmerced.edu
Associate Professor, Management of Complex Systems Department, University of California Merced
How do research teams leverage the advantages of diversity to address complex research problems? This talk presents a framework for measuring two complementary approaches to convergence science – namely, integrating distinct conceptual methodologies and integrating scholars from distinct domains of expertise – and explores how varying combinations of these two approaches correlate with different research outcomes. Notably, circa the 2013 launch of flagship HBS funding programs across the globe, we identify a curious burst of polymathic convergence, whereby research integrates diverse concepts without achieving commensurate team diversity –a "convergence shortcut” likely driven by competitive funding pressures, that may unintentionally incentivize suboptimal approaches to addressing boundary-spanning grand challenges.
Implementing Complex Interventions for Complex Conditions in Complex Systems (12:50-1:10)
Dr. Sabrina M. Figueiredo | sfigueiredo@email.gwu.edu
Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Research and Leadership at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Complex conditions are unlikely to respond to interventions that follow a reductionist approach, in which there is a linear association between an isolated intervention and an intended outcome. Complex interventions should consider the various causes of the condition and incorporate various therapeutic tools. One size does not fit all when dealing with complex conditions in complex systems. Understanding and explaining what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why is imperative.
Bridging Science and Medicine: The Collaborative Pathway for Breakthroughs in Team Science (1:10-1:30)
Dr. Kelvin Quinones-Laracuente | kelvin.quinones-laracuente@nyulangone.org
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, NYU Langone Health.
This talk explores the relationships between scientists and clinicians, highlighting how collaboration fosters innovation in research and patient care. Drawing on the speaker's unique experience as an MD/PhD, the discussion will delve into how the insights from clinical practice can enhance scientific inquiry and how researchers can provide cutting-edge solutions to medical challenges, creating a dynamic feedback loop that advances both fields.
Moderated Discussion and Q&A (1:30-2:00)
NIH Staff will moderate a discussion with all panelists including opportunities for questions from the audience (please also submit your questions during registration).
Speaker Biographies
Bruce A. Weinberg is Eric Byron Fix-Monda Endowed Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Ohio State University. His research, which has been published in journals including the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Nature, PNAS, and Science, spans three areas: (1) The economics of creativity and innovation (2) The determinants of youth outcomes and behavior and (3) Technological change, industrial shifts, and the wage structure. He has held visiting positions at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Princeton University and is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Labor (IZA), Bonn and a Research Associate at the NBER. He has applied his expertise on science and innovation into practice, having advised the NIH Directorate on the biomedical research workforce and NextGen initiatives and by serving on the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy.
Alex Petersen is Associate Professor and founding faculty member in the Management of Complex Systems department at the University of California, Merced. His research focuses on the evolution of multiscale socio-economic systems by applying concepts and methods from complex systems and management science to elucidate the role of science policy and technological paradigm shifts on the structure and dynamics of innovation, innovators, and innovation systems.
Sabrina M. Figueiredo, Ph.D., M.Sc., PT, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership at the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Having earned a Master of Science and a PhD from McGill University, she has extensive experience in experimental and observational designs and a robust data analysis background. Of importance, Dr. Figueiredo has investigated and implemented interventions to combat burnout in hospital settings and, as a result, has published peer reviews and presented at international conferences on complex interventions to mitigate burnout as well as burnout outcome measures. In addition, Dr. Figueiredo is a program theory expert who teaches this content in the translational health sciences doctoral program. She currently serves as the Program Director for the Graduate Program in Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety at GW. Before joining GWU, Dr. Figueiredo served as an Assistant Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) and McGill University (Canada). She has extensive teaching experience, including teaching more than 1000 students the course Research Methodology and Foundations of Professional Practice, which comprised principles of Global Health, the Canadian Health Care System, and the role of OTs and PTs in different healthcare settings. During her tenure at McGill University, she was also the Associate Director of the Physical Therapy Program. Dr. Figueiredo's research focuses on quality of life, burnout among healthcare professionals, patient safety and transition of care, creating innovative measurement strategies to contribute evidence to patient-centered outcomes, and developing programs to improve seniors' outcomes.
Dr. Kelvin Quinones-Laracuente. I am a Puerto Rican, scientist, and a psychiatrist. Initially pursuing a combined MD/PhD training to be aware of current illnesses and further advance on their research. Behavioral diseases caught my attention as one of the fields with vast unknowns. Fortunately, for my graduate work, I trained with Dr. Greg Quirk, as he sharpened my scientific rigor, logic, and understanding of behavioral science. With Greg, I researched fear learning and memory using extracellular in vivo neural recordings. For residency, I wanted an intense and diverse exposure of psychiatric symptoms. I currently treat patients with a wide range of psychiatric illnesses, and I have noticed several overlapping symptoms across disorders that affect social function. This drove me to delve into the neural basis of interacting with others, melding my research training with my clinical experiences. Now in the lab of Dr. Robert Froemke, I model social scenarios with mice. These models allow us to examine neural circuitry with electrophysiology and optogenetics while one animal observes another. Understanding the neural circuitry and social brain pathways will yield new insights on how to better diagnose, treat, and prevent a wide range of psychiatric illness. My long-term plan includes becoming an independent researcher in academia and train the next generation of neuroscientists, particularly the underrepresented in science.
The NINDS COMBINE Program (RFA-NS-23-027)
Tackling the most ambitious goals and challenges of modern neuroscience research is increasingly dependent on collaborative approaches that leverage expertise and advances across multiple disciplines, an ever-increasing knowledgebase, and a broad armamentarium of technologies. NINDS recognizes the need to support emerging research opportunities of broad scope and complexity that require innovative team science approaches. The COMBINE program, as part of the NINDS Strategic Plan for Research, is designed to support interdisciplinary research teams to achieve transformative goals that could not be met by individual or parallel efforts.
The Collaborative Opportunities for Multidisciplinary, Bold, and Innovative Neuroscience (COMBINE) program is designed to support integrated efforts of three to six PDs/PIs to pursue a bold, impactful, and challenging goal with defined 5-year outcomes within the scope of this program and the NINDS mission. This defined research goal must only be achievable by an interdisciplinary team approach involving innovative combination of distinct disciplines and/or intellectual viewpoints, synergy in expertise and approaches, and well-managed team interactions. Proposed research must not represent a collection of individual efforts or parallel projects, but rather an integrated effort from all PIs to achieve a single, transformative research goal. Contact us at: NindsTeamScience@nih.gov