The Integration and Application Network (IAN) teamed up with the Belmont Forum for a synthesis workshop on 8-10 Dec 2018 in Washington, D.C. IAN staff facilitated the workshop, which Belmont Forum calls a "valorization workshop" with three groups of projects, identified by the Belmont Forum as Collaborative Research Actions (CRAs). The three CRAs were 1) "Food security and land use change", 2) "Arctic observing and science for sustainability", 3) "Mountains as sentinels of change". Yesenia Valverde assisted me with the arctic CRA, Heath Kelsey and Sky Swanson facilitated the food security CRA, and Katie May Laumann and Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen facilitated the mountains CRA. The workshop was held in conjunction with the annual American Geophysical Union conference in downtown Washington, D.C.

As an icebreaker on Day 1, we had each participant create a miniature flag of their country. Participants used the flags in their self-introductions, and the message conveyed by the plethora of different, colorful flags was that the Belmont Forum is a truly transnational initiative. We had an introductory plenary for introductions and orientation, but then broke out into three rooms, one per CRA. We spent the morning with the principal investigators from each project providing short synopses. In the afternoon, each of the CRAs conducted a SNAP exercise to identify the major values and challenges of conducting transdisciplinary research. We used Mentimeter to solicit input as well as using the sticky notes for SNAP. We also had each project team place their research locations on a world map. Finally, at the end of a day 1, each project team was assigned a short writing assignment, summarizing their project using the " and but therefore " template pioneered by Randy Olson.

On Day 2, we coalesced the three CRAs into a single plenary session. We started off by providing short summaries of each of the CRAs. After Day 1 activities, we also created custom made Conceptionary cards for each CRA. "Conceptionary" is a game/activity that we use in workshops that gets participants to draw conceptual diagrams while people from their team try to guess the key words. We find that Conceptionary warms up participants to drawing diagrams of their projects, which we did immediately following Conceptionary. Each CRA drafted creative diagrams that captured the diversity and complexity of issues that were addressed in each of the three CRAs.

We played another game/activity called "Title Pursuit", in which participants are given some data visualizations and asked to summarize the data with a short, descriptive sentence. We term these short summaries "active titles" that actually describe the results, as opposed to "passive titles" that only serve as placeholders. Following the activity, which we used in Mentimeter, each project submitted their active title describing the results of their project.

Rowena Davis, Tina Lee, and Bob Samors presented an overview of the "e-infrastructures and data management" project. This project is designed to ensure that data generated by Belmont Forum projects is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. The presenters also used Mentimeter to solicit input from the participants so that they could prioritize data management tools that their group is building.

To begin to synthesize Day 2 activities, we had the CRAs collectively write a short summary of their overall results using the " and but therefore " template. Then, we brainstormed the common themes and recommendations for future efforts. We did a short storyboarding exercise to begin the process of developing a summary document from the workshop.

To conclude the intensive and interactive portion of the workshop, we had Erica Key, the Belmont Forum Executive Director, sit in the front of the room while we played a music video tribute to her that Sky Swanson quickly pulled together. The video was based on a Beatles song "Come Together", since we had assembled workshop participants from multiple countries, working on six continents. CJ Reynolds and I recorded a duet for the video with the following lyrics that we encourage everyone to sing along:

Come Together
8 Dec 2018
William C. Dennison

Here come old Belmont
It come groovin' up slowly
It got joo joo data
It one holy Forum
It got warm Arctic degrees
Climate is a joker
It just do what it pleases

It changin' mountains
It changin' food systems
It changin' the Arctic
It is transnational
It say I know you, you know me
One thing I can tell you is
Data gotta be free

Come together, right now
Erica Key

It co-production
It's gonna be acute
It got climate on board

It changes permafrost
It got no food security
Changes all the polar bears
You can feel the degrees

Come together, right now
Erica Key

It roller coaster
It got early warning
It got muddy water
It one Mojo filter
I say one and one and one is three
Val-or-i-za-tions
'Cause It's so hard to see

Come together, right now
Erica Key

Come together, yeah
Come together, yeah.

On Day 3 of the workshop, we held an evening reception to thank everyone for their input and to distribute the draft synthesis document that Vanessa Vargas-Nguyen miraculously assembled from all the bits and pieces that we co-created with the participants. During the day of Day 3, the IAN team gathered in Annapolis to assemble the synthesis document, but then enlisted Emily Nastase and Kate Petersen in the Cambridge office to print and fold the final product. Then, Emily and Heath drove the printed document to Washington in time to staple the pages together (with minutes to spare). The draft synthesis document was 16 pages long, which is pretty amazing considering one weekend of effort. I believe that this is the highest amount of productivity per weekend in IAN history!

We all really enjoyed the experience of working with Belmont Forum again. The diverse topics that are being addressed and the amazing people who are tackling some of society's most pressing and intractable problems made this a stimulating experience. The fact that our facilitation skills and science communication abilities can augment these Belmont Forum projects make this partnership a fruitful and mutually satisfying effort.