Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-24-2024
Department
College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science; Department of Biological Sciences
Abstract
The decision to establish a network of researchers centers on identifying shared research goals. Ecologically specific regions, such as the USA’s National Ecological Observatory Network’s (NEON’s) eco-climatic domains, are ideal locations by which to assemble researchers with a diverse range of expertise but focused on the same set of ecological challenges. The recently established Great Lakes User Group (GLUG) is NEON’s first domain specific ensemble of researchers, whose goal is to address scientific and technical issues specific to the Great Lakes Domain 5 (D05) by using NEON data to enable advancement of ecosystem science. Here, we report on GLUG’s kick off workshop, which comprised lightning talks, keynote presentations, breakout brainstorming sessions and field site visits. Together, these activities created an environment to foster and strengthen GLUG and NEON user engagement. The tangible outcomes of the workshop exceeded initial expectations and include plans for (i) two journal articles (in addition to this one), (ii) two potential funding proposals, (iii) an assignable assets request and (iv) development of classroom activities using NEON datasets. The success of this 2.5-day event was due to a combination of factors, including establishment of clear objectives, adopting engaging activities and providing opportunities for active participation and inclusive collaboration with diverse participants. Given the success of this approach we encourage others, wanting to organize similar groups of researchers, to adopt the workshop framework presented here which will strengthen existing collaborations and foster new ones, together with raising greater awareness and promotion of use of NEON datasets. Establishing domain specific user groups will help bridge the scale gap between site level data collection and addressing regional and larger ecological challenges.
Publication Title
International Journal of Biometeorology
Recommended Citation
Donnelly, A.,
Desai, A.,
Heckman, K.,
Nave, L.,
Cramer, M.,
Faust, M.,
Weishampel, P.,
Slemmons, C.,
Andresen, C.,
Ayres, E.,
Cotey, S.,
Docherty, K.,
Hatzis, J.,
Hofmeister, K.,
LaMontagne, J.,
Lenters, J.,
Lottig, N.,
Marcarelli, A.,
Miesel, J.,
Riddle, J.,
Salmon-Tumas, M.,
SanClements, M.,
Sapkota, S.,
Schwartz, M.,
Sharma, P.,
Shrestha, O.,
Vincent, G.,
Waupochick, A.,
Zheng, T.,
&
Zhiwei, Y.
(2024).
Fostering effective and sustainable scientific collaboration and knowledge exchange: a workshop-based approach to establish a national ecological observatory network (NEON) domain-specific user group.
International Journal of Biometeorology.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02673-x
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/700
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© The Author(s) 2024. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-024-02673-x