RAPID International Type I: Assessing Adaptive Responses During COVID-19 Research Collaboration: A Study of Collaborative Contexts

Part 1.
This project will improve the U.S. national research system and promote scientific progress by identifying the nature and scope of COVID-19 impacts on international collaboration in research and education. The principal objective is to understand the impact of new information and communications technology (ICT) on the process of networking and collaboration under pandemic conditions, as well as adaptations to these conditions. This assessment allows us to investigate the causes and conditions under which collaborative interactions become disrupted as well as recommend best practices from among those identified as successful by participants. The researchers will analyze both qualitative and quantitative interviews in order to (1) identify principal collaborations and collaborators of each scientist, both local and international; (2) examine the pre-pandemic use of travel, face-to-face meetings, and remote collaborative software, as well as the factors associated with their relative importance across countries; (3) enumerate the types of impacts that COVID-19 had on these collaborations; (4) assess the degree to which technology and scientific practice affected preparedness for disruptions (5) develop a typology of adaptive responses; (6) analyze participant perceptions of the relative effectiveness of these responses on the progress and outcomes of collaboration (7) examine the degree to which men and women scientists had different experiences during the pandemic as well as different responses. Project interviews and analysis are to be widely distributed to provide grounded guidance for policy makers and others seeking to understand the impacts of pandemic conditions on the production of knowledge.

Part 2.
This project will provide systematic comparisons among a population of scientists across four countries. Data on collaborative practices will be collected from individual scientists, while analysis will yield insight into the nature and process of pandemic collaboration and adaptive practice. International collaborations and U.S. scientists will be compared with scientists in Ghana, Kenya, and India. Previous studies of scientific and engineering communities in these areas have been ongoing since 1994, providing a valuable baseline for comparative assessments of disruptions to international collaboration and the assessment of responses. The project will utilize a combination of qualitative and quantitative interviews with 1100 researchers. The study population includes scientists that engage in international collaborations involving the environment, natural resource management, and sustainability. The two primary research sectors are universities and national research institutes. Our population of scientists and educators is drawn from a group of organizations in and around Baton Rouge, Nairobi, Accra, and Trivandrum. The locations represent diversity in levels of scientific and educational development, with the U.S. community arguably at the summit of international science, followed by Kerala, representing a relatively high level of development, Kenya a medium level, with Ghana comparatively lower. The results of this project will contribute to an understanding of the diversity of adaptive responses among international collaborations and provide guidance for policy makers and managers seeking to understand these differences and design effective interventions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.