It is widely assumed that collaboration in research is 'a good thing' and that it should be encouraged. However, multidisciplinary research teams often face challenges concerning communication, coordination and collaboration processes as members usually have different educational backgrounds, speak different domain-specific languages and use different work processes. Furthermore, members use their own set of tools to optimize their work processes within the context of their own organization.

The Interdisciplinary institute for BroadBand Technology (IBBT), an independent research institute founded by the Flemish government, wants to stimulate ICT innovation by providing highly competent researchers in different aspects of broadband technology and by carrying out multi-disciplinary research. To fulfill this task, IBBT unites more than 600 researchers from various Flemish universities and knowledge centers in virtual multidisciplinary research teams. In order to enable more efficient research collaboration within these teams, IBBT set-up an internal interdisciplinary research project using a people centric research methodology.

This article describes part of the research carried out in the framework of this project. More specifically, it describes the research into the thresholds or determinants for participation in research activities through computer-supported collaborative work tools (CSCW).

In the first part of the article we elaborate on the differences between CSCW, CSCR (Computer Supported Collaborative Research), CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning), groupware and social software. Based on their interdependence we make a conceptual distinction between communication, coordination and collaboration activities as part of the research process. Next, we develop a long list of determinants for participation based on a literature review of Thorn & Connolly (1987), Karau & Williams (1993), Beenen et al. (2004), Wasko & Faraj (2000), Nahapiet & Ghoshal (1998) and Wang & Fesenmaier (2003). We distinguish 4 groups of determinants in the literature: a person will participate in a task (using a CSCW-tool) based on the evaluation of 1) the effort that might be required, 2) the other users of the CSCW tool, 3) the actual task or tool and 4) his/her personal characteristics.

In the second part of the article we describe how we used three focus groups centered on a communication, coordination and collaboration scenario to validate and prioritize the determinants discovered in the literature review. The research resulted in a shortlist describing 28 determinants for the participation in research activities through CSCW tools.

The third part of the article describes the results of a survey that was held amongst all IBBT-employees. This online survey polled the attitudes towards the list of determinants and gathered information on the specific tasks and the position of each researcher separately.

In the final part of the article results from the literature review and the qualitative and quantitative research are discussed and correlated. Based on this discussion we try to propose recommendations on the social models, the processes, and the technology solutions that will be implemented in a tailored-made CSCW-tool that should enable more efficient research collaboration within the virtual multidisciplinary teams of IBBT.

This research is been carried out within the framework of the IBBT CoCoNut project.