This chapter discusses the need for cooperation (or collaboration) to be balanced with competition, including between research groups, within a university or laboratory and between the academic research sector and industry. Healthy competition is a great motivator but unhealthy competition can be disastrous. While it is still possible for an individual scientist working alone or with a couple of graduate students or postdocs to make ground-breaking discoveries, today much experimental science requires large teams working collaboratively on a common goal or set of goals. While this trend is most evident in particle physics and astronomy, it is also present in the other physical sciences and the life sciences. Collaboration brings together more resources–physical, financial and intellectual–to address major challenges that would otherwise be beyond the scope of any individual or group. Multidisciplinary research and interdisciplinary research are examples of cooperation between different disciplines.
