Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration

Societal Impact Statement Climate‐change and land‐use intensification are degrading ecosystems globally, impeding their services to humans (e.g., food security and human health). The United Nations 13th and 15th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for action to protect and restore ecosystems....

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Main Authors: Lena Neuenkamp, Erica McGale
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2023-11-01
Series:Plants, People, Planet
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10390
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author Lena Neuenkamp
Erica McGale
author_facet Lena Neuenkamp
Erica McGale
author_sort Lena Neuenkamp
collection DOAJ
description Societal Impact Statement Climate‐change and land‐use intensification are degrading ecosystems globally, impeding their services to humans (e.g., food security and human health). The United Nations 13th and 15th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for action to protect and restore ecosystems. Only transdisciplinary research can unravel the multitudes of interacting ecosystem parts that could help accomplish these SDGs. However, a major challenge will be overcoming material, social and other types of barriers that prevent collaborations. This study explores some of these challenges and seeks the views of the community through a survey to help develop a new age of plant science collaboration. Summary In this opinion article, we explore the problem of missed opportunities for collaboration in fields related to plant science. Lack of awareness of the scientific output, which can be gained from transdisciplinary collaborations, as well as the opportunities they can provide for early‐career scientists, may contribute to this. Here, we name communication barriers as particularly inhibitory to the formation of collaborations and propose possible solutions to overcome these barriers. Eventual action towards these solutions needs to be based on the opinions of the community. We thus intend this article to initiate a dialogue among researchers across the many disciplines of plant science about the feasibility of these proposed solutions. The questionnaire included with this article, intended for the broad plant research community, we believe could help us gain the necessary information to proceed in addressing communication barriers to transdisciplinary science collaborations. We provide a theoretical framework, examples and timely topics as discussion points to inspire participants of the questionnaire to contribute their voice to shaping a new age of plant science collaboration.
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spelling doaj.art-c6ed8be1f5e1448ca323fa108d0d85f22023-10-25T06:52:54ZengWileyPlants, People, Planet2572-26112023-11-015682182710.1002/ppp3.10390Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaborationLena Neuenkamp0Erica McGale1Institut für Landschaftsökologie Westfälische Wilhelms‐Universität Münster Münster GermanyDepartment of Ecology and Evolution University of Lausanne Lausanne SwitzerlandSocietal Impact Statement Climate‐change and land‐use intensification are degrading ecosystems globally, impeding their services to humans (e.g., food security and human health). The United Nations 13th and 15th Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for action to protect and restore ecosystems. Only transdisciplinary research can unravel the multitudes of interacting ecosystem parts that could help accomplish these SDGs. However, a major challenge will be overcoming material, social and other types of barriers that prevent collaborations. This study explores some of these challenges and seeks the views of the community through a survey to help develop a new age of plant science collaboration. Summary In this opinion article, we explore the problem of missed opportunities for collaboration in fields related to plant science. Lack of awareness of the scientific output, which can be gained from transdisciplinary collaborations, as well as the opportunities they can provide for early‐career scientists, may contribute to this. Here, we name communication barriers as particularly inhibitory to the formation of collaborations and propose possible solutions to overcome these barriers. Eventual action towards these solutions needs to be based on the opinions of the community. We thus intend this article to initiate a dialogue among researchers across the many disciplines of plant science about the feasibility of these proposed solutions. The questionnaire included with this article, intended for the broad plant research community, we believe could help us gain the necessary information to proceed in addressing communication barriers to transdisciplinary science collaborations. We provide a theoretical framework, examples and timely topics as discussion points to inspire participants of the questionnaire to contribute their voice to shaping a new age of plant science collaboration.https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10390global changeinterdisciplinary scienceplant–soil interactionsscience collaborationsscience communication
spellingShingle Lena Neuenkamp
Erica McGale
Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
Plants, People, Planet
global change
interdisciplinary science
plant–soil interactions
science collaborations
science communication
title Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
title_full Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
title_fullStr Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
title_full_unstemmed Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
title_short Empowered through our diversity: How to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
title_sort empowered through our diversity how to bring in a new age of plant science collaboration
topic global change
interdisciplinary science
plant–soil interactions
science collaborations
science communication
url https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10390
work_keys_str_mv AT lenaneuenkamp empoweredthroughourdiversityhowtobringinanewageofplantsciencecollaboration
AT ericamcgale empoweredthroughourdiversityhowtobringinanewageofplantsciencecollaboration