Building and Sustaining Long-term Collaboration – Lessons at the Mid-way Mark

This paper contributes to the discussion of ways to support research collaborations by reviewing INKE’s experiences in collaboration and the creation of supportive structures and processes from the first three and a half years of collaboration.&nbsp

Responding to Change and Transition in INKE’s Year 3

Use of project teams is increasing, however little is known about collaboration as it actually occurs over the life of projects. This paper explores the nature of collaboration within Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) after three years of funded research. The third year is characterized by change and transition with new team members, partners, and sub-research areas. INKE continues to draw upon structures and processes, including team building activities, in-person meetings, multiple communication channels, evolving governance documents to support the collaboration, and incorporating collaboration-ready individuals.  The paper concludes with recommendations for similar long term, large-scale project teams

Understanding Long-Term Collaboration: Reflections on Year 1 and Before

This article considers the results of an ongoing study of research collaboration within a cross-country research team in the digital humanities. The INKE group (or, Implementing New Knowledge Environments) is in its first year of funding for projects in the areas of Interface Design, Textual Studies, User Experience and Information Management. The author presents initial findings on the challenges and advantages to collaborative work on such a large-scale project

From Writing the Grant to Working the Grant: An Exploration of Processes and Procedures in Transition

Fundamental to many projects, a research grant application outlines a research question to be explored as well as its importance and scholarly contribution. This article’s aim is to explore this transition from the grant application to the actual funded research work by examining the experience of INKE, a large interdisciplinary research team. After more than five years of planning and funding success, the research team needed to develop more specific procedures and policies that would facilitate their collaboration than had been outlined in the grant application. Issues under consideration included governance documents, intellectual property policies, leave/exit policies, planning processes, and the inclusion of new researchers and partners. This article will conclude with recommendations on transition and process planning for research teams to ensure effective research collaboration

INKE Administrative Structure: Omnibus Document

This document reflects the distributed administrative structure to be put into practice by the Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) group for the purpose of governing itself as it carries out work on its Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI)-funded initiative. The INKE group consists of academic researchers, academic research partners (many invested as stakeholders as well), an international advisory board, a partners committee, individual research area groups (RAG) each with their own (co)leads who act as administrators for the group and form the overall RAG administrative group committee, and an executive committee (EC) that represents all areas of activity in the research endeavour and also includes an administrative/ management advisor (who carries out work and provides leadership on process, not research content) and a project manager. Taken as a whole, the structure of the group is an embodiment of the distributed administrative and authoritative principles that have evolved over the several years of the project's foundation, and the materials that follow have been assembled and authored by the entirety of the administrative team in that spirit. This document is also closely aligned with the processes outlined in two related documents: the annual calendar and the annual RAG planning process. &nbsp

Firing on all cylinders: Progress and Transition in INKE’s Year 2

Use of project teams is increasing; however little is known about collaboration as it actually occurs over project’s life. This paper explores nature of collaboration within Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) after two years of funded research.  The second year is characterized by forward research progress, positive relationships, and transitions and challenges related to human resources, team restructuring and partner institutional policies.  INKE is drawing upon structures and processes, including in-person meetings, multiple communication channels and evolving governance documents to support the collaboration.  The paper concludes with recommendations for similar long term, large-scale project team

"From Technical Standards to Research Communities: Implementing New Knowledge Environments Gatherings, Sydney 2014 and Whistler 2015"

On December 8, 2014, researchers, students, librarians, and other participants gathered together in Sydney, Australia at the State Library of New South Wales for the 7th annual Implementing New Knowledge Environments (INKE) Birds-of-a-Feather conference, “Research Foundations for Understanding Books and Reading in the Digital Age.” On January 27 and 28, 2015, a similar group of stakeholders met in Whistler, BC, Canada, at the Nita Lake Lodge for the second year to discuss “Sustaining Partnerships to Transform Scholarly Production.” The events were hosted by INKE and sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Drawing from these two gatherings, the articles collected in this latest issue of Scholarly and Research Communication reflect an ongoing conversation in SRC (see 5.4), on new ways humanities researchers, publishers, and policy makers can collaborate effectively to make the most of the new affordances of computational tools and methods

The Impact of a Community-University Collaboration: Opening the “Black Box”

ABSTRACTWithin the Social Economy, universities are working with community representatives to undertake research projects, service learning opportunities, and increasingly, academic program development, all with the objective of addressing social challenges. As many are quick to caution, the community is actually a sum of its various actors, interests, accountabilities and needs, which university staff and faculty must work to understand. Like the community, the university is a complex organization with politics, conflicts, tensions, and competing goals and objectives. Within this larger context, these various components, focusing on government, academic and administrative stakeholders, will impact and may even limit aspects of a collaboration between the university and its community partners. Through examination of a case study related to a graduate program, which was collaboratively developed between the university and community representatives, this article will identify and explore those accountabilities and the resulting impact on the collaboration. It will conclude withrecommendations for similar partnerships.RÉSUMÉDans l’économie sociale, les universités travaillent de pair avec des représentants de la communauté pour lancer des projets de recherche, créer des occasions d’apprentissage par le service et, de plus en plus, développer des programmes d’études universitaires; tout cela dans le but de régler des défis sociaux. Beaucoup s’empressent de formuler une mise en garde : la communauté est en réalité la somme des divers acteurs, intérêts, responsabilités et besoins qui la composent, ce que les membres du personnel et les facultés des universités doivent tenter de comprendre par leur travail. Au même titre qu’une communauté, une université est une organisation complexe constituée de politiques, de conflits, de tensions ainsi que d’objectifs concurrents. Dans ce contexte large, ces diverses composantes, en particulier les intervenants gouvernementaux, universitaires et administratifs, auront des conséquences sur la collaboration entre l’université et ses partenaires communautaires, et peuvent même en limiter certains aspects. Cette étude définit et analyse ces responsabilités et leurs conséquences sur la collaboration par le moyen d’une étude de cas liée à un programme d’études supérieures développé grâce à la collaboration de l’université et des représentants de la communauté. L’étude se termine par des recommandations visant des partenariats similaires

Mapping disciplinary differences and equity of academic control to create a space for collaboration

Academics are collaborating more as their research questions are becoming more complex, often reaching beyond the capacity of any one person. However, in many parts of the campus, teamwork is not a traditional work pattern, and team members may not understand the best ways to work together to the benefit of the project. Challenges are particularly possible when there are differences among the disciplines represented on a team and when there are variations in academic control over decision making and research direction setting. Disparities in these two dimensions create potential for miscommunication, conflict, and other negative consequences, which may mean that a collaboration is not successful. This paper explores these dimensions and suggests a space for collaboration; it also describes some benefits and challenges associated within various positions within the framework. Academic teams can use this tool to determine the place they would like to occupy within the collaboration space and structure themselves accordingly before undertaking research.  Les universitaires sont en train de collaborer de plus as leurs questions de recherche deviennent plus complexes, souvent ils dépassent la capacité d'une seule personne. Cependant, dans certains endroits au campus, le travail d'équipe n'est pas une manière traditionnelle de travail et il se peut que les membres ne comprennent pas les meilleures façons de travailler ensemble pour le bénéfice du projet, en particulier quand il y a des différences parmi les disciplines qui sont représentées et l'équité en contrôle académique en ce qui concerne la prise de décision et le choix de la direction de recherche dans les équipes. Les différences en chaque créent la possibilité pour l'erreur de communication, le conflit et d'autres conséquences négatives qui pourraient signifier une collaboration qui n'a pas de succès. Cet article examine ces deux aspects et suggère un endroit de collaboration avec une exploration des avantages et des défis associés à différentes positions dans le système. Les équipes académiques peuvent utiliser cet outil pour déterminer l'endroit qu'ils veulent occuper dans l'espace collaboratif et pour s'organiser en conséquence avant de commencer la recherche

Implementing New Knowledge Environments: Year One Research Foundations

In this 2009 article, we present details of the first year work of the INKE (Implementing New Knowledge Environments) research group, a large international, interdisciplinary research team studying reading and texts, both digital and printed. The INKE team is comprised of researchers and stakeholders at the forefronts of fields relating to textual studies, user experience, interface design, and information management. We aim to contribute to the development of new digital information and knowledge environments that build on past textual practices. We discuss our research questions, methods, aims and research objectives, the rationale behind our work and its expected significance—specifically as it pertains to our first year goals of laying a research foundation for this endeavour.&nbsp