6: Building Collaborative Researcher Capacity

Featuring the stories of early career researchers Alfred, Amy, Harry, Jane, Lucy, Mark and Ole

The tension for early career researchers between building collaborative researcher capacity and achieving personal recognition is the focus of our chapter. It conceives collaborative research as involving collaborations with a range of stakeholders, including, for example, other researchers, students, industry and community partners who may be located locally or globally. Individual research profiles are defined as the documentation of rewards and recognitions obtained from the conduct of work (e.g., publications, grant funding, project outcomes, etc.). The challenges of ensuring personal recognition through collaborative research and the implications of collaboration in competitive, collaborative and complementary environments are explored in the chapter. As shown in Fig. 6.1, this tension operates in a wider system of tensions, explored through this book. Stories of engaging with stakeholders and communities show this is a socially informed tension.