Two Key Strategies for Ensuring the Long-Term Sustainability of STEM Initiatives

By Mary Realff, PI

Interdisciplinarity, Multidisciplinarity, Team Science

In August, the IGE team sat down with Principal Investigator Dr. Mary Lynn Realff to discuss successful implementation and long-term sustainability of the team science initiative.

The NRT-IGE project, Integrating Team Science into the STEM Graduate Training Experience, at Georgia Tech developed a scalable model designed to ensure the program’s longevity beyond the grant period. This grant focused on team science—the science of building and managing teams—by fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and offering workshops, or “lecture-ettes” with activities. The initiative’s primary goal was to enhance the effectiveness of interdisciplinary research teams.

Dr. Mary Lynn highlighted two key strategies that contributed to the program’s sustainability. First, recognizing the significant time commitment required for full workshops, her team introduced flexible options to accommodate busy academic schedules. For instance, a 50-minute lesson supported by “lecture-ette” and activities could be incorporated into the Chemistry Department’s career course, and personalized one-on-one sessions were made available to research groups.

Second, a cost-center was established within the university to facilitate the dissemination of workshop resources after the grant period. This allowed the team to be compensated as university employees rather than as external consultants, a common practice for paying project staff, thus ensuring smoother integration and continued support for the program.

“The NSF IGE support (grant #1735017) enabled us to not only develop the training materials for equipping interdisciplinary teams to work more effectively together, but also to study the use of the materials in different settings. The NSF IGE funding enabled us to develop materials that are scalable to larger audiences and at other universities. Our supplemental funding enabled us to offer an asynchronous version of the training that increased accessibility and broadened its impact by removing the need for facilitators or physical space constraints.”

Dr. Mary Lynn Realff

> Read the project abstract

> Visit the program page

Integrating Team Science into the STEM Graduate Training Experience

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