A Love Letter to NICE: Enhancing Collaborative Research Opportunities for All
Originally published with Psi Chi - July 8, 2020
Collaboration in research, particularly international collaboration, can seem daunting. Often, researchers are more likely to collaborate with those they deem trustworthy (more often people within their own research labs, departments, and universities) or those with higher resources (Abramo et al., 2018; Iglič et al., 2017). Despite barriers, collaboration is on the rise, and more are recognizing the potential benefits of international research (Jeanmonod & Firstenberg, 2019; Wagner et al., 2019).
Psi Chi’s Network for International Exchange (NICE) is a relatively new program that encourages creative and novel international research using an open science framework. NICE has two major components.
One is the Connect component, where individuals can post their projects and interested collaborators can select a project of interest and communicate with the investigator to contribute participants.
The other component is the crowdsourcing component, where one or two projects are selected each year to receive assistance in recruiting contributors and addressing research across multiple cultures and languages.
I have a unique perspective when it comes to NICE. In 2018, my project was the first to be selected for the crowdsourcing opportunity, and now I am the NICE chair for the 2020–2021 year. Having seen both sides of this experience, I feel confident saying it is both a unique and well-crafted opportunity for collaboration. NICE provides a primary investigator with a committee and chair to review materials regarding cultural sensitivity issues in a research proposal and facilitates communication with contributors from many countries. The assistance from the committee makes consulting easier and made me a better multicultural researcher.
I not only worked abroad with so many researchers I had never met before, but I was also able to work across disciplines in psychology, something I have personally found difficult domestically. You get so many perspectives when working with people from different cultures and disciplines in psychology that I felt my research idea, execution, and manuscript were all made more robust. I didn’t have a series of people agreeing with me, but instead people willing to ask me difficult questions and provide feedback knowing it was to be their work too. Due to NICE, I was able to conduct better multicultural research, and my network has increased. Most importantly, my collaborators are also people I know I can contact in the future because I have good working relationships with them.
Finally, in my new role, I have a deeper understanding of the care that goes into reviewing projects and facilitating culturally sensitive research. Committee members are eager to assist, provide feedback, and are a valuable resource on cross-cultural research. Psi Chi’s NICE is a fitting name for a program that, in my opinion, has effectively encouraged international collaboration in psychological research.
If you have an exciting cross-cultural question in psychological science, consider applying to NICE: crowd! Students and faculty are eligible to apply and you do not have to have a Psi Chi chapter at your institution. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. Proposals are due July 31, 2021! For more information, go to https://www.psichi.org/page/research#collaborate.
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