Facilitating Interdisciplinary Collaboration among the Intelligence Community, Academy, and Industry

Book excerpt: This volume describes, analyzes, and critiques the design and evolution of the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS), a National Security Agency-funded big data laboratory. The LAS consists of teams of intelligence personnel, who provide practical understanding of needs, targets, and tradecraft, working collaboratively with university scholars and industry partners of varying disciplines to bring their collective expert knowledge and understanding to improve the tools and tradecraft of intelligence. This book details the theoretical and practical lessons that can be drawn from the LAS for the development of cross-sector, interdisciplinary collaboration. It will inform scholars and practitioners in intelligence, communication, design, management, public policy, political science, and indeed all arenas currently grappling with the desire to engage multiple and diverse stakeholders in the research and development of innovative solutions to the world’s most challenging problems.