R2G2: Engaging in Team Science: Collaboration is Hard, Best Practices for Success

Solving complex scientific challenges requires collaborating with experts from different disciplines. While the theories surrounding building trust, having difficult conversations, setting expectations, and accountability are easy to comprehend, putting everything into practice is hard work. This event will focus on helping you understand the pieces that need to be put in place to launch a new research team or revitalize an existing one. You’ll learn about the role of a collaborative mindset in team science, and see how that relates to the major stages of team development. You’ll learn to reframe how you think about gifts, and how receiving them in collaborations can have impact on the team. Finally, you’ll get some insights on some of the most critical collaborative competencies.

About the Presenter:

Dr. L. Michelle Bennett, PhD started her career as a molecular oncologist working at the laboratory bench. Over time she shifted focus to the use of collaborative approaches to maximize team and organizational effectiveness and catalyze partnerships. She is passionate about working at the leading edge of transdisciplinary research endeavors through consulting, facilitation, and as a team science architect.

Michelle was the founding director of the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Research Strategy, a role she relished until 2021. In that time, she worked with countless teams across different professions, and co-authored Collaboration and TeamScience: A Field Guide which serves as a primer for investigators and staff who are building, participating in, or supporting collaborative research teams and institutions.

Michelle is a certified Executive Coach and currently Principal and Owner of L.M. Bennett Consulting, LLC. During her 20-year career at the National Institutes of Health, Michelle held a number of leadership roles and gained extensive practical experience promoting collaboration and team-based approaches to strategic planning, identifying emerging areas of research, and assessing the impact of research investment. Routinely working across and beyond the organization, she brought individuals together with diverse backgrounds and expertise. She is now using this experience to help teams and organizations across a wide range of sectors, both in the US and on the international arena.

Route to Getting Grants (R2G2) is specially designed for early-career faculty at Stanford. Sessions cover all aspects of grant writing, delivered through panel sessions, workshops and focused talks. R2G2 also provides unique networking opportunities, enabling cross faculty collaborations and multidisciplinary partnerships. R2G2 ensures that early-career faculty have all the tools and strategies to lead them to grant success and on to independent research careers.

R2G2 is sponsored by the Stanford School of Medicine’s Grant Writing Academy, Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, and Proposal Development Office.

If you need a disability related accommodation to participate in this event (captioning, sign language interpreting, Braille, etc.), please contact the Diversity & Access Office at disability.access@stanford.edu or 650.725.0326. Requests should be received at least one week prior to the event.