A Problem Shared Is a Community Created: Recommendations for Cross-Institutional Collaborations.

Area of Science:

• Academic Collaboration
• Research Data Management
• Scholarly Communication

Background:

• Committee work is essential in academia but often challenging to manage effectively.
• The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data Management & Sharing (DMS) Policy, effective January 2023, mandates Data Management and Sharing Plans (DMS Plans) for funded research.
• Librarians and research data professionals need clear guidance to navigate these new policy requirements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe strategies for improving leadership, group dynamics, accountability, and incentives in collaborative academic projects.
• To share lessons learned from a successful cross-institutional working group that developed guidance for the NIH DMS Policy.
• To provide practical advice for establishing and managing productive working groups.

Main Methods:

• Formation of a cross-institutional working group comprising over 30 librarians and research data professionals.
• Collaborative development of comprehensive guidance materials for the NIH DMS Policy.
• Documenting strategies for member recruitment, participation, meeting structure, and product dissemination.

Main Results:

• Successful creation of multiple resources, including glossaries, an example DMS Plan, a directory of plans, checklists, and a repository finder, in less than a year.
• Demonstrated effectiveness of a grassroots, diverse-expertise approach to addressing complex policy requirements.
• Identification of practical strategies applicable to various stages of a working group's lifecycle.

Conclusions:

• Cross-institutional collaboration can effectively address complex research support challenges.
• Structured approaches to leadership, dynamics, accountability, and incentives are key to productive working groups.
• The strategies outlined can be adapted by librarians, data professionals, and academics for future collaborative initiatives.