The SEAD network is a community of advocates for the importance and value of research and creative work across arts and sciences. There are two groups funded by NSF EAGER grants: NSEAD and XSEAD. The “SEAD” moniker acknowledges that the two groups have common views and, increasingly, linkages that help leverage them toward common goals.
The White Papers project was proposed early on within the NSEAD group as a way to build community around perceived challenges and opportunities in our broadly transdisciplinary work. The White Papers Working Group is conducting this research for the network, to structure actions and make them relevant to stakeholders as we move forward.
The papers posted here are the response to this open call from our global network. They represent a spectrum of interests in advocating for transdisciplinarity among the arts and sciences. The call asked interested authors to submit a plan of action and identify stakeholders who might be instrumental in carrying it out. The individual efforts do not represent a collective aim towards any explicit initiative. Rather, they offer a broad array of views on barriers faced and prospective solutions.
The SEAD White Papers project is not intended to offer direct proposals for funding, though some individual papers may do so. The SEAD network acknowledges that, given the range of interests and scope of sustainability concerns, network funding should best be distributed across a range of stakeholders.
Furthermore, the White Papers project is not an effort to claim that art advances science or vice versa. Though individual authors may do so, the network is giving voice to opinions both individually and collectively.
SEAD network, the White Papers Working Group, and the conversations enabled here should be recognized as different entities and the objectives of SEAD not necessarily the same as those of individual suggested actions.
For more background on the organization of SEAD please see: http://sead.viz.tamu.edu/pdf/SEAD_Annual_Report_Summary_5_2012.pdf
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.1142510, Collaborative Research: EAGER: Network for Science, Engineering, Arts and Design (NSEAD) IIS, Human Centered Computing. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Cover image: Map of science derived from clickstream data (2009). Maps of science resulting from large-scale clickstream data provide a detailed, contemporary view of scientific activity and correct the underrepresentation of the social sciences and humanities that is commonly found in citation data. © Johan Bollen. Used with permission. Originally published in Bollen J, Van de Sompel H, Hagberg A, Bettencourt L, Chute R, et al. (2009) Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. PLoS ONE 4(3):e4803. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004803