The Value of Advisory Boards to Enhance Collaboration and Advance Science

Abstract

The Washington University in St. Louis (WU) Center for Transdisciplinary Research in Energetics in Cancer (TREC) initially set up use of an Internal Advisory Board and External Advisory Board to provide feedback to the team through the research process. We describe how using the two boards helped to foster increased connections and collaboration between investigators from different disciplines and between the four projects, allowing the center to move from basic science to evaluation of policies within communities. We describe how the two boards began to work together to help WU TREC team members to see ways of better collaborating so that the four projects formed a coherent whole that extended from basic laboratory science to clinical and workplace policy applications. We believe that advisory boards were invaluable in enhancing our transdisciplinary work and increasing the impact of WU TREC science.