Large Scale Collaborative Science: Lessons Learned from the Phase I COFFIES DRIVE Science Center

Abstract

The National Research Council published a report on Enhancing the Effectiveness of Team Science in 2015. This report identified 7 fundamental challenges that large research teams, such as the NASA DRIVE Science Centers (DSC), might face including: high diversity of membership, deep knowledge integration, large size, goal misalignment, permeable boundaries, geographic dispersion, and high task interdependence. In Phase I, the COFFIES DSC formed a Center Effectiveness Team (CET) to identify and help overcome these and other unique challenges, including those introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. CET members have focused on finding and exploring novel ways to align and direct the Science Teams with the goal of enabling breakthrough science. We will present the CET initiatives and implementations, and review the lessons learned for future large-scale science collaborations.