Collaborations are becoming increasingly important in biology because of the need to apply multiple technologies to tackle the most complex current problems. The U.S. National Institutes of Health recognizes this need, and has created the “multi-investigator” granting mechanism to facilitate this process. I have reviewed a number of proposals that utilize the multi-investigator mechanism and have generally found them to be superior to individual investigator grants. Setting up a good collaboration, however, can be extremely difficult.
What's the Value of Conferences?
Academic Medicine to the Rescue
First, it is probably necessary to say what a collaboration is not. I do not consider providing reagents or advice to your fellow scientist a collaboration. That is part of normal scientific citizenship. Every scientist should be willing to accommodate reasonable requests for assistance. No, a collaboration is when you work with another scientist with complementary expertise to solve a common ...
