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Oxford University Press has just released The Consortia Century: Aligning for Impact, which examines how multi-stakeholder consortia are shaping the way organizations collaborate to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. The book is co-authored by Christine Kirkpatrick, director of the Research Data Services Division at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, a pillar of the School of Computing, Information and Data Sciences at UC San Diego.

“Written by a team of interdisciplinary scholars led by Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, our book offers an original framework for understanding and guiding research, policy and practice in stakeholder-led collaborations made up of individuals and/or organizations,” Kirkpatrick said. “It draws from a diverse range of case studies — including biomedicine, research data work, labor relations, video game engineering, science and higher education — to provide broadly applicable principles for individuals and organizations working together across sectors.”

At its core, The Consortia Century addresses a fundamental question: how can society effectively tackle complex, large-scale issues such as AI regulation, sustainability and poverty? The authors argue that consortia — self-governing collaborative arrangements among independent organizations and other stakeholders — are a key part of the solution. Cutcher-Gershenfeld noted, “The challenges society faces exceed the capacity of any one organization or institutional actor — progress depends on many parties accomplishing together what they can’t do separately.”

A major insight from the book is the concept of “minimum viable consortia” that suggests how waiting for a perfect plan is impractical in complex situations. Instead, the authors posit that progress should be made through small wins, continuous learning and adaptation — a pragmatic, humble and adaptive approach to tackling big challenges.

According to Kirkpatrick, the book is the result of more than a decade of collaboration through the Stakeholder Alignment Collaborative and includes contributions from experts across multiple disciplines, including leadership from the Protein Data Bank's Helen Berman; past National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure Director Alan Blatecky; Karen Baker, formerly of the Long-Term Ecological Research network; Susan Winter, associate dean for the College of Information at University of Maryland; Nick Berente, senior associate dean for Academic Programs at Notre Dame; John Leslie King, former dean of the School of Information at the University of Michigan; Barbara Mittleman, founding director of public-private partnership program at the NIH, and other colleagues from across the U.S.

“By providing insights into the structure, purpose and impact of consortia, we aim to equip policymakers, researchers and organizational leaders with the tools to drive meaningful change in an increasingly interconnected world,” Kirkpatrick said.