An ad hoc committee will plan and conduct a two-day public workshop on how culture and cultural perception influences and impacts the process by which research agreements are made and negotiated across international boundaries. Five meeting tracks or domains are currently envisioned and will be scheduled as smaller breakout groups. The tracks will focus on research and agreements affecting or involving (1) people/human subjects, (2) environment and natural resources, (3) the development of software, algorithms, literature or other written materials, (4) science, engineering, and manufacturing processes, and (5) agriculture/animal issues. Each track will bring together US and international experts to examine both the domain under discussion and case studies from various locations that illuminate the role that culture and cultural expectations may have in the forging and implementation of international research agreements.
In addition to the meeting tracks, a set of plenary sessions for all meeting participants will be held, addressing topics of a cross-cutting nature. Several proposed topics include: (1) How to Prepare – Includes such topics as project risk assessment, sustainability/continuity of foreign projects, the influence of history and sociology in building successful cross-cultural projects. (2) Wealthy vs. Poor Underdeveloped Countries – How does or should research efforts differ in underdeveloped countries with significant financial resources versus those with very limited resources? How do you make research/science policy when there are lots/limited resources? How does governance structure and/or principles differ? (3) Language – How does language influence the ability to have successful international research agreements? What is acceptable/unacceptable terminology? How are word interpreted differently? (4) Urbanization – How are changing population patterns and demand for access to urban infrastructure changing cultures? What do these changes mean for international research collaboration? (5) Intellectual Property (IP) – How do differing cultural attitudes towards ownership of ideas / IP affect cross-cultural partnerships? What constitutes IP and what can you protect? How is IP enforced? (6) Change and Drivers – What changes are on the horizon that will influence international research agreements? How can positive change be driven through such work? What drives/motivates people to get together to do research?
Several additional broad questions are of interest as well and will be considered during the workshop. How does culture affect commercialization? How does it influence the wording/shaping/development of standards? What impact does culture have on a nation’s ability to innovate?

An individually authored workshop summary report will be published.