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Can you afford the time?
Keeping up with a collaboration project means extra time invested in experiments, meetings, writing and thinking. Be aware of how
much time this will take away from your responsibilities as a PI. Evaluate if it's important enough to your interests and worth the
time that will be invested. If you decide to proceed with a collaboration, be mindful of where you're spending your time so you're not
neglecting your main research projects.
What are the expected contributions of each collaborator?
All collaborators must define and agree to their roles. To do this, be clear about what skills you bring to the collaboration as well as
what the other person can do. Determine what techniques are going to be used, where the work is going to take place and who's
going to do it.
At the beginning it's not easy to understand that there are people
trying to take advantage of you. You think everyone is your friend.
My advice for new PIs is to try to identify collaborations that are
going to be productive for you and your lab. Many times you'll
receive invitations to participate in a project, but all they want you
to be is a technical support of some sort. You cannot lend your lab
just to do services for other people. You need to think about what
you, as a lab, gain in knowledge, which collaborations make you
grow. You are not the cherry on their cake!
Fabiola Osorio
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