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Campus Talks: Want to think bigger and achieve more? Then collaborate – an academic makes the case for collective research

By miranda.prynne , 13 August, 2026
A data visualisation expert talks about leading the global Human Reference Atlas initiative and how collaboration enables researchers to think far bigger
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Podcast
Summary

Listen to this podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts.

“Oftentimes it’s said that if you want to go fast, you go alone, but I don’t think you can go far this way. If you want to go far, you have to go together.”

So states Katy Börner during this episode of Campus Talks, in which we ask her about her ground-breaking project aimed at mapping all the anatomical structures and human cells in the human body, the Human Reference Atlas (HRA).

This project relies on the input of thousands of researchers across multiple disciplines from all over the world, including several other ambitious physiological “atlasing” efforts that are working in parallel to the HRA.

The Victor H. Yngve distinguished professor of engineering and information science at Indiana University, Bloomington, Börner is also founding director of the Cyberinfrastructure for Network Science Center and a curator of the international Places & Spaces: Mapping Science exhibition

She explains how she developed an interest in data visualisation work and why she has embraced an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to research throughout her career.

To learn more about advancing collaboration across higher education, head to our latest spotlight guide.

If you would like advice and insight from academics and university staff delivered direct to your inbox each week, sign up for the Campus newsletter.

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A data visualisation expert talks about leading the global Human Reference Atlas initiative and how collaboration enables researchers to think far bigger

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I totally agree with the sentiment - interdisciplinary, partnership/ team research; BUT a BIG fly-in-the ointment is that promotion favours the lone wolf......Clearly many of the pressing global challenges - Climate change, mass movement of people, war, terrorism, radicalisation, pandemics etc - DEMAND team collaboration; but grey, male and stale promotion boards will be stacked with individuals who have trodden the path well trod, to professorship and/or promotion up the greasy pole. Can we depend on those who have arrived via a conventional route to preferment, to think creatively/ outside the box and......look beyond the olde ways of achieving in academe that favours the individual over the team?
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