Grant: Canada Excellence Research Chairs

Over the last decade, several high-profile studies have reported that many published research findings could not be replicated. These findings served as a call to action to increase the transparency of scientific systems so that every step of science is publicly accessible (i.e., open science), and to conduct ‘meta-science' or ‘science on science', with the aim of improving the research process. Dr. Nakagawa is a global leader in open science and meta-science in ecology and evolution. As a Canada Excellence Research Chair, Dr. Nakagawa will lead the first-ever systematic and large-scale meta-science project in ecology and evolution by building diverse and global collaboration networks (i.e., team science) to achieve the following four specific aims. Aim 1: chart the current state of knowledge and evidence in ecology and evolution and establish an international network of scientists and non-scientists to conduct the first continuously updated evidence synthesis. Aim 2: predict replicability in published evidence in empirical studies and meta-analyses in ecology and evolution and validate the replicability of the meta-analyses via a series of workshops that both conduct and teach meta-analyses. Aim 3: build scientific infrastructure to increase replicability by creating a semi-automated AI-based synthesis workflow, reporting guidelines and best practices, and the first registration repository for ecology, evolution, and related fields. Aim 4: develop new statistical methods for meta-analysis that enable data recycling in a wide range of fields, including environmental, social, and medical sciences, and showcase how these new methods can be applied to improve sex- and gender-based data analysis. Dr. Nakagawa will create an international knowledge hub for ecology and evolution, meta-analyses, and open science in Canada and train >250 early career researchers in highly sought-after quantitative data and synthesis skills. This research program will have transformative impacts on the fields of ecology and evolution, and beyond. Charting the current state of knowledge in ecology and evolution will enable researchers to identify trustworthy evidence and rebuild research where evidence has been flawed or weak. Dr. Nakagawa will empower global scientific communities to openly synthesize and evaluate scientific evidence. Finally, building a scientific infrastructure, which facilitates open and team science, will impact and benefit fields beyond ecology and evolution.