ABSTRACT
In a world where there is increasing demand for solutions to urgent and complex ecological questions requiring multidisciplinary participation and transdisciplinary insight, but where the abundance of information has become overwhelming, the analysis and synthesis centre has emerged recently as an effective and arguably indispensible tool. Using staff with multidimensional skills and considerable experience, the synthesis centre provides a supportive environment for groups of people with diverse disciplinary, organisational, cultural and geographical origins to work together using existing data to address big science questions. It fills a niche in time-pressed and discipline-centred lives, enabling wisdom to be drawn from a heterogeneous mass of data.
The successful performance of synthesis centres depends on a unique marriage of knowledge of learning, collaboration and teamwork behaviours, data management expertise (including legal aspects) and scientific understanding, coupled with the knowledge of national and international scientific and organisational landscapes.
470The synthesis centre approach, described in this chapter, has proved to be remarkably successful, with high publication output and citation rates, and the delivery of many data packages for future use. Participation in a synthesis centre provides users with a uniquely stimulating experience and enables them to forge new and strong professional relationships. Without such centres, transdisciplinary insights will continue to be limited to existing partnerships and short-term goals and will lack the probity that original work on data and information can provide.
