Interdisciplinary connectivity: Understanding and managing complex systems using connectivity science

The i-CONN network brings together an exceptionally strong team of world-leading experts in connectivity science from seven disciplines, in 13 partner institutions, both academic and industrial, from Austria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Norway, UK and USA, with the specific aim of the network is to achieve cross-fertilization of ideas to bring the forefront best aspects of connectivity research across disciplines into a common framework. These advances will enable a new generation of connectivity scientists to overcome existing limitations of connectivity science produce transdisciplinary insights into the behaviour of complex systems. The proposed innovative science in a range of diverse disciplines (Astrophysics, Computer Science, Ecology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Neuroscience, Systems Biology, and Social Science) will underpin breakthrough developments in connectivity research and measurement techniques that will benefit not only these disciplines, but also others that are using connectivity science as a means of understanding the behaviour of complex systems. To our knowledge, there are no other attempts to bring together the connectivity thinking that has evolved within disparate disciplines. The consortium of multiple academic and private, public and NGO groups will deliver top, international-level interdisciplinary training to 15 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs), offering them an extended programme of multinational exchanges and secondments. The ESRs will perform transdisciplinary research and receive interdisciplinary training through six interconnected work packages that collectively address knowledge gaps related to connectivity science: theory; methods and application. Filling these gaps will not only result in major innovative insights for understanding and managing complex systems, but critically will develop a suite of standards, tools and approaches that can be applied more generally. To address these challenges, it is crucial to train a new generation of ESRs in a programme such as this ITN where fundamental and applied research are effectively integrated via collaborative research, doctoral secondments and theoretical/applied courses – in other words, one in which the aforementioned disciplines Astrophysicists, Computer Science, Ecologists, Geomorphologists, Hydrologists, Neuroscientists, Systems Biologists, and Social Scientists can contribute to a well-defined problem: how we can use and develop connectivity-related tools to understand complex systems