Introduction: Interactionist and Qualitative Approaches to Translational Team Science

The growth in science and engineering research conducted by teams has dramatically accelerated since 1975, making multiuniversity collaborations the fastest growing authorship style (Jones, Wuchty, & Uzzi, 2008). This transition has been accelerated by the recognition that increasingly specialized scientific fields must develop collaborations to enhance creativity and accelerate the pace of discovery, especially in terms of addressing major societal health problems (Disis & Slattery, 2010). Research and intellectual property developed by highly functioning multidisciplinary research teams has greater impact in peer recognition through citations and patent uses than research products from siloed investigators (Wuchty, Jones, & Uzzi, 2007). As a result, major funding agencies are placing increasing emphasis on team science approaches in their funding opportunities.