Collaboration is not optional – and conservation science shows why

Perhaps the biggest shift academia still needs to make is to cast off the idea that independence is the highest marker of scholarly success. Early career researchers are often encouraged to “do everything themselves”, as though struggling alone demonstrates intellectual rigour.

In truth, however, most – if not all – fields of discipline have problems that no one person or organisation can solve alone. In conservation science especially, that reality becomes clear very quickly. Collaboration is not a professional luxury or a networking exercise; it is a necessity, because the problems we face are too interconnected and technically complex for any one researcher to tackle alone.

• Interdisciplinary research cultures are inclusive, not competitive
• Why the ‘lone wolf’ principal investigator no longer works in modern academia
• Juggling competing priorities in research collaborations

My own work as a researcher and professor of fish and wildlife conservation spans genomics, ecology and computational modelling. We use genomic tools to understand threats to endangered species. That work requires ambitious laboratory and computational methods, but it also depends on people with deep local and institutional knowledge, government agency managers who understand regulatory realities, practitioners who know landscapes and stakeholders, and communities who live alongside these ecosystems every day.

Start early

Too often, academics produce conservation research and only afterwards attempt to translate it into practical recommendations. One of my biggest frustrations is seeing papers make sweeping claims about what managers or agencies should do – without those groups ever having been part of the conversation. The problem with these types of generalities is that real collaboration must happen from the outset, not after the results are already in hand.

That shift requires a different mindset about expertise. Collaboration is not about weakening your own contribution; it is about acknowledging the expertise of others and strengthening the overall work through a team approach. The best collaborations emerge when people recognise the limits of their own knowledge and become genuinely curious about what others bring to the table.

Start humbly

I experienced this first-hand after moving from California to Virginia. In California, I had established robust networks and longstanding working relationships focused on salamander conservation – specifically, California tiger salamanders. Arriving in Appalachia, I quickly realised that although I understood the broader science, I was suddenly a novice when it came to local species, ecosystems and stakeholders.

That experience reinforced an important lesson: collaboration starts with humility.

Rather than trying to become an instant expert in everything, I began reaching out to people who knew the landscape better than I did. Often, the process was surprisingly simple. You start with people you connect with personally and intellectually, then ask questions: Who should I talk to about this species? Who is doing interesting work with this method? Which agency partners are deeply engaged in this issue?

Grow your network bubble

Strong collaborations tend to grow organically through networks of trust.

Some of the most successful partnerships in my work have involved groups with entirely different priorities and expertise. In Virginia, for example, I have begun collaborating with researchers studying freshwater salinisation and water chemistry. Their work initially focused on nutrient cycling and aquatic invertebrates, while my interest centred on genomic and evolutionary responses. Neither perspective alone could fully address the problem, but together we are able to ask broader and more sophisticated questions.

In California, much of my work on the endangered California tiger salamander depended entirely on relationships with private landowners because, in Santa Barbara County, every known breeding pond for the species is on privately owned land. Without those partnerships, the research simply could not happen. Building and maintaining that trust required patience, empathy and long-term relationship-building. Sometimes access changed unexpectedly because of concerns shaped by previous experiences with agencies or institutions.

In those moments, it becomes especially important not to treat collaboration as transactional. The most productive partnerships emerge when people recognise a shared investment in protecting a species or landscape, even if they arrive with very different perspectives and priorities. The most rewarding collaborations are often the ones where you spend every meeting learning something entirely new.

Challenges of collaboration – and how to overcome them

Of course, collaboration also creates challenges. Everyone involved is busy, timelines differ and not every participant has the same background knowledge or priorities. One of the most important skills in collaborative work is learning not to assume that everyone shares your immediate context or vocabulary.

Good collaborators create structures that make participation easier for others. That means providing context, summarising discussions clearly, setting expectations early and recognising that people are balancing competing demands on their time. Communication is not peripheral to collaboration; it is the infrastructure that allows collaboration to function. In reality, some of the strongest science emerges from networks of complementary expertise.

The future of research will depend less on individual mastery and more on our ability to work across disciplines, institutions and communities. Conservation science simply makes that reality impossible to ignore.

Robert Cooper is an invasive species geneticist, assistant professor in the department of fish and wildlife conservation in the College of Natural Resources and Environment and faculty affiliate in the Global Change Center and Invasive Species Collaborative at Virginia Tech.

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