Long-distance collaboration makes scientific breakthroughs more likely

Phys.org  May 31, 2022
Disruptive ideas and scientific breakthroughs are becoming increasingly rare and harder to find, with incremental discovery now more common than groundbreaking new findings. In an analysis of data for more than ten million research teams, across eleven academic fields from 1961 to 2020, researchers in the UK determined that over the past decade remote collaboration between academic teams has led to more scientific breakthroughs. This is a reversal of what was observed from the 1960s to the 2000s, when remote collaboration led to fewer scientific breakthroughs and more incremental innovation. New teams tend to create more disruptive science than existing teams, and academics with access to better digital infrastructure see better results from remote collaborations. As internet access continues to expand, and more researchers and institutions can harness the new benefits of remote collaboration in the digital age we may see this change…read more.