Fosteri ng Team S ci ence: Innovative Leadership Practices in NSF Industry/University Research Cooperative Centers

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry / University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) Program, like many government-industry-university (Triple Helix) research organizations, incorporates collaborative teams of scientists, or team science. The NSF IUCRC Program represents a successful social technology. This qualitative study analyzes selected, innovative leadership practices introduced to foster team science at IUCRCs at two levels of leadership ‐ Program and Center ‐ around three dimensions of innovation: fidelity to the social technology's core principles, costs of resources and coordination, and efficacy for valued outcomes. Consistent with earlier research, examples of high-fidelity, low-cost, high-efficacy innovative practices in Center meetings appear to have diffused widely through IUCRCS, including an adaptation of the nominal group technique and poster sessions. An innovation with fidelity to core program principles, but relatively high costs ‐ multi-university Centers ‐ diffused with support by financial incentives introduced at the program level. An example of a reinvention low on both fidelity and efficacy ‐ electronic attendance at Center semi-annual meetings ‐ has not diffused. These preliminary, qualitative results raise questions for the science of team science, and if corroborated, carry implications for leaders aiming to foster team science in triple helix organizations.

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