"Bridge seminars" (and exploring teams) to boost cooperation across research areas that various people are working on

We are all busy with our ongoing team work, projects etc. This IPM is revealing some gaps in communication, cooperation, collaboration across our programs and teams.

Here is an idea that could bridge that gap on a regular basis, not just waiting for the next IPM to happen and help us integrate our work.

We have regular seminars in different programs, we used to have institutional seminars, and both had one slight problem: they tended to bring together the people already involved in that work in one program (LSE folks for an LSE seminar, Bioscience folks for a BS one...).

Thinking slightly differently...
We could identify a number of 'bridge areas' that more than one team is working on: feed resources, aflatoxins, governance systems etc. (I'm sure you know better than me what these research areas could be). Once we have identified these areas we could basically organise:

• A small 'exploring team' of people from these different teams, working around these areas to bridge the gaps, identify what each person/team is doing around this topic; what complementarities, overlaps and gaps there are; what recommendations each of these actors could/should play in addressing the gaps;
• A good overview of the science/literature/projects of ILRI and partners on this topic (leading to e.g. an information sheet about this research area);
• A seminar that brings these different perspectives together and focuses on the implications for various programs, if not ILRI as a whole;
• A sort of soft system to decide whether ILRI should invest more in this area (e.g. institutionalise this research area) or how to take the recommendations made for each of the teams working on this area forward;
• A very small group meeting e.g. 2x/year to assess what the next 'bridge areas' to focus on are?

Over time, we can safely expect this increased cooperation will actually accelerate, as more ideas are exchanged and everyone is getting used to looking beyond their area of focus (i.e. looking out of our own 'box').

Whatever the structure of our teams and programs in ILRI, if we focus just on how we are organized formally there will always be some collaboration gaps and 'silo biases' across the institute, so this type of mechanism could be a way to more informally keep on bridging the work across all of us and make sure we integrate our work better (thereby saving time and not competing for resources).

Join this idea and turn our institute into a bridging, learning institute that focuses on integrating the good work that's happening in various parts of ILRI.