In the penultimate episode of this six-part podcast series about team science, Richard Holliman describes a project involving indigenous researchers in Guyana who wanted to limit insecticide spraying without jeopardising the South American country’s efforts to tackle malaria.
The early warning system they developed with Andrea Beradi, an environmental systems researcher and a colleague of Holliman’s at the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, involved satellite technology, drones and ground monitoring systems.
Holliman, who studies engaged research, says members of the wider project team were all paid and listed as co-authors. “That was a really straightforward example of just recognizing contributions from some fabulous people,” he adds. But sometimes, he argues, payment and authorship on a peer-reviewed paper may not be what co-producers are seeking. Instead they may want to co-write a report that would better serve their community’s needs in discussions with policymakers.
Helen Manchester, who researches participatory sociodigital futures at the University of Bristol, UK, adds: “For me, there’s a real politics to knowledge production. We really need to be considering all the time when we’re doing our research, to think about our own position as researchers and our relationship to and with other people.”
And finally, Lorraine van Blerk, whose project about homeless young people in African cities featured in a previous episode, lists key questions to ask when working with young people in a research setting. “How do we make sure that young people are involved in the research design, in the data collection, and the analysis and impact of data?” she asks.
Team Science showcases the roles of research managers, administrators and technicians, and their often hidden contributions to the scientific enterprise, and is a collaboration between Nature Careers and Nature Index. The series is sponsored by Western Sydney University. This episode, and others in the series, concludes with a section looking at how it is helping to champion team science.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Why female students at an inner London school are seeing scientists in a different light
Using live transport data to deliver sustainable cities
How artificial intelligence is helping to identify global inequalities
Infrastructure projects need to demonstrate a return on investment
Decent work for all: why multinationals need a helping hand
How artificial intelligence is helping Ghana plan for a renewable energy future
How a young physicist’s job move helped Argentina join the ATLAS collaboration
How to plug the female mentoring gap in Latin American science
‘Maybe I was never meant to be in science’: how imposter syndrome seizes scientist mothers
‘Hopeless, burnt out, sad’: how political change is impacting female researchers in Latin America
How we connect girls in Brazil to inspiring female scientists
‘There is no cookie cutter female scientist’
How Tiger Worm toilets could help to deliver clean water and sanitation for all
How we boosted female faculty numbers in male-dominated departments
Building robots to get kids hooked on STEM subjects
‘It reflects the society we live in where a young person does not feel that life is worth living’
‘Blue foods’ to tackle hidden hunger and improve nutrition
People need more than cash to rise out of poverty
Chandrayaan and what it means for India's brain drain
Why we need an academic career path that combines science and art
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Reaching your Goals
Insights@work
The Ken Coleman Show
The Cardone Zone
Radical Candor: Communication at Work