Project description
Studying the organisational dynamics of international scientific consortia
International scientific consortia are ever more central in efforts to address global challenges such as how to respond to major health emergencies, the development of new, clean sources of energy, and how to preserve our environment. While such consortia are increasingly important, our understanding of their distinctive organisational dynamics has lagged behind. International scientific consortia are complex organisations where work is geographically dispersed and involves diverse stakeholder groups from academia, government, and industry. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for novel organisational theory that will advance our understanding of these consortia. EU-funded INSCONS is an ambitious attempt to address this need by studying organisational structures and histories of three large consortia in nuclear fusion research, biomedicine and geoscience.
Objective
INSCONS is a groundbreaking, large-scale examination of the organisational dynamics of international scientific consortia (ISCs) and the interactions of these consortia with broader scientific communities, national bureaucracies, and industry. ISCs are very complex organisations with work being carried out at geographically dispersed sites, and involving international stakeholder groups from across the realms of science, policy, and industry. As these ISCs are becoming more important in efforts to address global challenges in areas such as health, the environment, and clean energy, our understanding of the distinctive organizational dynamics governing these consortia has lagged behind. Accordingly, there is a pressing need for novel organisational theory and frameworks that will advance our understanding of ISCs. INSCONS is an ambitious effort to address this need, using a comparative, interdisciplinary approach. Three case studies of large, international ISCs in nuclear fusion research, biomedicine, and the geosciences are at the core of INSCONS. The INSCONS project will examine four aspects of these ISCs. It will 1) Map the internal organisational dynamics of ISCs using interviews, bibliometric network analyses, and ethnographic field studies on everyday work in ISCs. 2) It will study ISCs’ interactions with the broader scientific community by conducting a survey among researchers in the scholarly fields ISCs operate in, and by analysing these fields’ co-authorship networks. 3) It will examine the (inter)national political processes and bureaucratic wrangling shaping ISCs. 4) It will examine relationships of dependency and influence between ISCs and industry through case studies as well as analyses of patenting and publication activities. Taken together, the project outputs of INSCONS will bring into clear focus the sociology and politics, as well as the operational complexities that govern this important, new organisational form in contemporary science.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
WC1E 6BT London
United Kingdom