Next Generation Teams Research

U.S. Army units are facing increasingly complex operational scenarios, including variedphysical landscapes, modular units with increased levels of autonomy in decision making that willbe expected to aggregate and disaggregate to meet operational needs, and other novel scenarios asthe Army reorients itself toward a broader range of threats. To address these threats, Army leaders must have a better understanding of how to optimize human capital through team selection,staffing, and composition; have real-time methods of assessing teamwork and team performance in situ; and be able to manage coordination across units with varying structures, in a variety of contexts, and in light of events that impact team performance and potentially create the need for additional staffing decisions. To address these challenges, this cooperative agreement is intended to build a Collaborative Research Alliance (CRA) of scholars with expertise in teams, multiteam systems and networks, measurement, advanced analytics and modeling. This CRA will be a collaborative effort between Rice University, The University of Akron, and ARI, and will consist of a core set of project principal investigators, alliance members who will engage in projects based on emerging needs, and a senior scientific review and consultation board to provide input on the direction of the CRA program of research. Projects will span a variety of samples and research designs including Army Soldiers, e-sports teams, hospital teams, event venues, and a high-fidelity core experimental paradigm utilizing student and Soldier samples. This CRA will simultaneously conduct basic (6.1) and early applied (6.2) research.