Technology platforms can enable geographically dispersed collaboration in configurations that mix remote and in-person, live and asynchronous, immersive, and even human and nonhuman interaction. Given the climate, public health, and equity issues raised by needing to meet in-person, this program explores the ways that technology can enable or inhibit rich interactions at different scales across distance, time zones, and languages.

The Future of Conferences & Workshops

A tremendous amount of generative interaction in science  is enabled by field- and discipline-level convenings. While technology platforms open up new opportunities for virtual and hybrid meetings, we are still in the early days of understanding how to recreate (or even expand on) the rich social practices that we have taken for granted in in-person meetings. Grants in this area aim to study these more ephemeral practices and develop prototypes that explore alternate forms of conference participation.

Group Dynamics in Science

Every collaborative interaction between researchers is mediated by some form of technology. From chalkboards to Slack to VR, tools enable researchers to generate new ideas and coordinate research activities. Grants in this area aim to better understand the mutual shaping of collaboration tools and scientists, with a particular interest in immersive technologies that enable collaboration across geography and time. Our goal is to explore the potential for and  effects of such technologies on research outcomes,, and encourage continued experimentation by scientific teams with emerging digital platforms and immersive technologies.  

Human-AI Collaboration

Recent developments in generative AI have inspired substantial excitement about applications to science, but taking full advantage of these applications will require a nuanced, empirically grounded understanding of how best to structure and optimize collaboration between human researchers and emerging AI agents. Grants in this area support multidisciplinary research on human-AI interaction, as well as prototyping of novel uses of AI systems that move these insights into practice.