Overview

The goal of this research is to address the fundamental problems which are encountered when conducting interdisciplinary, multinational, collaborative IPM research. These include: (1) Constrained communications due to distance, language, and culture, (2) The ability of scientists from the U.S. and developing countries to understand the technical and practical aspects of research problems and components of those problems, (3) Sensitivity of scientists to the diversity of opinions and perspectives that characterize these types of research teams, (4) Development of a shared set of expectations and end products that should result from collaborative research. In addition, this topic areas seeks to promote a substantive and continuous flow of information among IPM CRSP Caribbean site team members. This means that formal approaches such as workshops provide vehicles to share ideas on specific topics (e.g., information systems, pesticide resistance management). However, by the very nature of workshops they occur for only a limited period of time (e.g. a few days) thus, a substantive flow of information is achieved but not a continuous one. Therefore, it is essential to use other approaches that foster continuous communications using a variety of classical (telephone, fax, mail) and new technologies (e-mail, world wide web, teleconferences).