Appendix A.

Interview Questions Below is the interview guide for TREC I investigators. Interview guides for TREC I center directors, training core directors, biostatistics core staff, and trainees included additional questions that addressed their unique perspectives, given their specific roles in TREC. Three of the TREC I interview guides are available for download on the Team Science Toolkit website: www.teamsciencetoolkit.cancer.gov.

[INSTRUCTIONS TO INTERVIEWERS – READ THE FOLLOWING SCRIPT]: Thanks, again, for agreeing to participate in this interview. Before we start, I want to tell you a little bit about our goals for these interviews. The NCI feels the TREC I initiative has made important contributions to our understanding of how to successfully implement cross-disciplinary research and training in energetic and cancer. This summer, the NCI Science of Team Science team is conducting interviews with TREC I center participants and program staff at the NCI, to record strategies for success and lessons learned from TREC. We'll be using the results of these interviews to showcase the TREC initiative, and produce a manuscript highlighting our findings. This interview should last about an hour. Do you have any questions before we begin? [ADDRESS QUESTIONS. THEN BEGIN RECORDING.]

1. To start out, could you tell me how you have been involved in the TREC center at [INSTITUTION NAME]?

2. As you know, one of the goals of the TREC initiative has been to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration in various stages across the research process, such as the formation of research questions, the methods that are used, and the ways that findings are analyzed and interpreted. We are interested in learning about the strategies TREC centers have used to achieve this goal. I'm going to start by asking you some questions about cross-disciplinary collaboration. Then I'm going to ask you some questions about transdisciplinary research, using a particular definition of that term. Based on your experiences with TREC, what factors have helped to facilitate or support productive cross-disciplinary collaborations? For example, things like interpersonal processes within teams, leadership, infrastructure, or institutional policies? a.What strategies have you and your collaborators used to facilitate productive cross-disciplinary collaboration? b.What factors at your TREC center, or at your institution, more broadly have helped to facilitate or support productive cross-disciplinary collaboration? For example: leadership, infrastructure, or institutional policies?

3. Could you give me an example of a collaboration that came out of one of these strategies, or that was supported by one of these strategies?

4. Based on your experiences with TREC, what challenges have emerged related to engaging in or supporting productive cross-disciplinary collaborations?

5. Were any of the challenges addressed? And if so, how?

6. Now I want to ask you specifically about what our team is calling “transdisciplinary research.” Some researchers who study scientific collaboration differentiate between “transdisciplinary research” -- or “TD research” -- and cross-disciplinary research. They define TD research as a unique level of cross-disciplinary collaboration that involves [GIVE PARTICIPANTS THE FLASHCARD WITH THE WRITTEN DEFINITION, AS YOU READ IT ALOUD]: an “Integrative process whereby researchers from different disciplines work jointly to develop and use a shared conceptual framework that synthesizes and extends discipline-specific theories, concepts, methods, and approaches, to address a common problem.” Can you reflect on the extent to which your research projects with the TREC center reflect this particular definition of transdisciplinary research, with its emphasis on the “integration” of disciplines? a.(IF RESPONSE IS GENERALLY POSITIVE:) Can you give me an example? b.(IF RESPONSE IS GENERALLY NEGATIVE:) Why do you think that your research has not been transdisciplinary, according to this definition?

7. Can you reflect on the extent to which your TREC center, as a whole, has engaged in research that reflects this particular definition of transdisciplinary research?

8. (ASK IF APPROPRIATE:) You mentioned a number of factors that helped to facilitate or support cross-disciplinary research at your TREC center. Were there any additional factors that helped to facilitate transdisciplinary research, as I just defined it? For example, things like interpersonal processes within teams, leadership, infrastructure, or institutional policies? a.Were there any additional strategies that you and your collaborators used to facilitate transdisciplinary research, in particular, as I just defined it? b.What factors at your TREC center, or at your institution, more broadly, have helped to facilitate or support transdisciplinary research, as I just defined it? For example: leadership, infrastructure, or institutional policies?

9. (ASK IF APPROPRIATE:) You mentioned a number of challenges that emerged related to engaging in or supporting cross-disciplinary collaboration. Were there any additional challenges that emerged related to engaging in or supporting transdisciplinary research, as I just defined it?

10. (ASK IF APPROPRIATE:) Were any of the challenges addressed? And if so, how?

11. Now I want to get your feedback about the TREC Initiative, as a whole. Based on your experiences, in what ways has the TREC Initiative, as a whole, helped to support cross-disciplinary collaboration, or even transdisciplinary research? a. Could you reflect, in particular, on the TREC Initiative's structure – such as the coordination center, working groups, scientific meetings and center retreats, and the requirement to have the TREC center cores? To what extent have these structures helped to support cross-disciplinary collaboration, or even transdisciplinary research?

12. Do you have any recommendations about how the TREC Initiative, or future center grant programs, can better support cross-disciplinary collaboration, or even transdisciplinary research?

13. Now I want to ask you about some of the impacts of TREC. Based on your experiences with TREC, were there any unique scientific outcomes–such as scientific innovations or advances -- that emerged due to cross-disciplinary collaboration, that would not have emerged otherwise?

14. In addition to scientific outcomes, have there been any other unique outcomes from the TREC initiative that you think would not have occurred otherwise? For example, translational outcomes, or outcomes for your academic institution, or participating scientists? [PROBE AS NEEDED:] a.Were there any unique translational outcomes, such as community programs or policy applications? b.Were there any other outcomes for your academic institution? Such as changes in institutional culture, administrative routines, or institutional policies? c.Were there any outcomes for you, academically or professionally, such as how you approach your research, or influences on your career trajectory? d.Were there any particular aspects of TREC that contributed to these outcomes? And if so, what were those?

15. That completes my questions for you. Is there any other feedback you'd like to share, before we end the interview?

Thank you very much for your time.