Inside Higher Ed: Faculty Speed Dating:
Later this month, about 60 Southern California faculty will assemble at a long rectangular table, pitching research ideas to other faculty they may have never even met before. In the style of speed dating, faculty will move across the table in a round-robin fashion, taking just a few minutes to chat before moving on to talk to other faculty. After these brief sessions, organizers hope a special chemistry will develop between some of the participants, prompting the beginnings of a new research relationship.
Steven Goodman, who has helped organize the event, sounds a bit like the host of The Bachelor when he discusses the concept. A professor in the university’s dental school, Goodman says he’s cautiously optimistic that some sparks will fly.
The “Research Collaboration Retreat,” as it has been billed, will focus on the subject of health care. Faculty from various disciplines across the university have indicated plans to attend, and there’s a financial as well as an intellectual incentive to do so. The university will provide seed money to the groups that are thought to have emerged from the retreat with the best ideas.
After the “speed dating sessions,” faculty will be encouraged to self-select into groups of four or more to begin the outlines of their research concept. The groups will then present their proposals on poster boards, which will be displayed throughout the room. Participants will then vote on their favorite proposals, but will not be allowed to select their own proposals. Those votes will be used to narrow down the groups with the most promising proposals, who will vie for a portion of $17,000 in seed money. The money will go to one or more of the proposals based on the review of a faculty panel.
The collaboration retreat is designed to be a “bottom-up” approach to fostering interdisciplinary research, Goodman said. Oftentimes, cross-discipline research is more or less mandated by administrators, as opposed to being born organically among faculty, he says.
