Hosted by Virginia Tech, the 12th Annual International Science of Team Science Conference aims to advance our understanding of collaborative initiatives that address multidimensional complex societal problems. The organizers invite team science academics, leaders, and members of cross-disciplinary teams, institutional leaders and administrators, and funding agencies to collaboratively rethink how science of team science research and practice may serve as a foundation for positive change and justice.


The theme of the SciTS 2021 is Science of Team Science and the Human Condition. As a point of convergence between science and practice, the conference will provide a platform to investigate contributions that team science research can make to addressing urgent contemporary challenges. This year’s conference will highlight the interface of the science of team science with challenges such as:

  • Responding to megadisasters (such as the COVID pandemic, hurricanes, and fires);
  • Curtailing systemic racism and the need to create and implement anti-racist policies and practices, including technologies; and
  • Grappling with challenges in large growing metropolitan regions, such as equitable economic growth, affordable housing, education, and healthcare, food scarcity, infrastructure systems (including IT systems), and the impacts of climate change.


As the host university with a growing footprint in the Greater Washington, DC region, Virginia Tech is eager to advance understanding of  contextual conditions and collaborative processes that promote development and coordination of laws, policies, strategies, and practices that address urgent societal challenges. The conference will feature scholars, practitioners, funders, and other leaders from across the country and the globe, thereby serving as a context for engaging team science principles and elaborating the  contributions of team science scholarship and practice toward improving the human condition.

The call for abstracts is now open. The committee invites submissions that focus on any pertinent topic relevant to the science of team science. These include, but are not limited to past interests:



  • Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Public Interest
  • Arts and Humanities
  • Big Data
  • Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing

  • Collaborative Readiness and Antecedents

  • Collaborative Governance and Public Participation

  • Communication

  • Data Visualization

  • Distributed/Virtual Teams

  • Diversity on Teams (e.g., cultural, gender, age)

  • Disciplinary Diversity on Teams

  • Educational and Teaching Team Science Principles

  • Effectiveness of Cross-Disciplinary Research Centers

  • Environmental Influences (e.g., organizational factors, physical environment)

  • Evaluation of Team Processes and Outcomes

  • Funding Strategies

  • Innovation and Creativity

  • Institutional Policies

  • Leadership for Effective Team Science

  • Learning and Knowledge Networks, such as Research Networking

  • Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary Teams and Approaches

  • Methods for Science of Team Science Research
    Multi-level/Systems Approaches

  • Multi-team Systems

  • Networks

  • Open Science

  • Philosophical Approaches

  • Promoting Team Science Values and Awareness

  • Sociotechnical Systems

  • Studies of Cross-Cultural and International Science Teams

  • Team Assembly

  • Team Composition

  • Team Dynamics

  • Team Macro-cognition

  • Team Science in the Clinical Translational Science Institutes

  • Team Types/Typology

  • Theoretical Approaches

  • Training, Mentorship, and Professional Development

  • Translational Science Teams

In line with this year’s conference theme on the Science of Team Science and the Human Condition, the organizers also invite submissions on the following new topics:

  • Team Science and responses to megadisasters;
  • Inclusive approaches to team science, factoring in race, culture, and gender; and
  • Team Science and megaregional challenges (e.g., infrastructure, housing, climate change).

You may also have your abstract considered for the Community Award for Outstanding Presentation. Be sure to make this selection during the abstract submission process.

SUBMISSION OPTIONS

 
Shalini Misra, Anne Khademian, and Karen Roberto
SciTS2021 Conference Co-Chairs