Enabling Science for an Interconnected World: Designing Human Systems for Discovery

Many of today's most pressing scientific challenges arise from interactions among natural, human, and technical systems. Yet the institutions through which science is conducted remain largely organized along disciplinary and organizational boundaries. As a result, the limiting factor in addressing complex problems is increasingly not only knowledge, data, or computational capability, but the ability to integrate expertise across domains and institutions over time. From a systems engineering perspective, the scientific enterprise can be viewed as a complex socio-technical system whose performance depends on how effectively its human and institutional components are organized and connected. This article argues that advancing science in an interconnected world requires treating collaboration as a designed system capability rather than an emergent by-product of individual research efforts. Drawing on insights from organizational science, sociology of science, and team science, it identifies three key structural elements that support sustained scientific collaboration: a cohesive core that provides coordination and continuity, boundary-spanning connectors that integrate knowledge across communities, and long-term commitment expressed through structures that sustain relationships and learning over time. Together, these elements represent architectural features of the human systems through which science is conducted. Deliberately designing these human systems offers a pathway for science to more effectively address complex societal challenges characterized by interaction, interdependence, and cascading effects.