Smells Like Team Spirit: Fostering Connection Between Historically Siloed Research Cores.

Research Cores at the Yale School of Medicine have a long history of arising from a need identified by a small group of researchers and initially administered within a department. As a Core matures and researchers from other departments use it, departmental core support may transition to central support associated with the Dean's Office. Cores vary in many dimensions including technology, operational model, scheduling access, tracking usage, impact reporting, marketing, lifecycle management, website information, participation on researchers' grants, preparedness for operational continuity, and intra-team and user communication. Despite these differences, each group is responsible for running a professional scientific unit serving the same community. Centralization of some administrative functions has occurred, and there is much more work to do! As early steps, we have reached out to cores to identify areas of interest to nucleate working groups. Working group sessions, 60-90 minutes long, with a defined small goal per session, are designed to make progress with input from core staff. Each working session includes a tangible pre-work assignment for participants. A clear agenda is developed and circulated. Meetings are focused and result in actionable follow-up steps and implementation by the larger group of Research Cores. Feedback is sought following each working session. We take incremental steps forward in centralizing operational practices as we foster meaningful and mutually beneficial relationships among core scientists. We would love to learn about efforts within your institution that have helped align and connect scientists across cores.