Short abstract

Big team science enables robust research with low-prevalence populations by mitigating small sample sizes and heterogeneity. We present a multinational study on cognition and intellectual disability to highlight challenges and solutions, demonstrating how careful planning drives meaningful progress.

Long abstract

Big team science provides valuable opportunities for metascience by enabling the curation of large databases, standardising research protocols, improving data reliability, and facilitating long-term data collection for future analyses. Such large-scale collaborations are especially valuable for research involving low-prevalence populations such as clinical groups, individuals with disabilities or individuals with specific characteristics. Small sample sizes and heterogeneity remain significant limitations in conducting studies with such populations, often limiting the generalisability, reliability and metanalytical syntheses of findings. As a consequence, some fields fail to make efficient progress despite many papers being published every year.

In this presentation, I will propose big team science as a solution promoting significant progress in research involving low-prevalence populations. I will reflect on key recruitment, methodological and logistical challenges encountered in our large-scale study on cognition and intellectual disability conducted across 30 research groups in 20 countries. Addressing these challenges required continuous collaboration, adaptability, and engagement with local research teams to balance standardisation with cultural and contextual relevance.

I will also share practical solutions and lessons learned from our project, emphasising the importance of proactive problem-solving in large-scale, multinational studies involving low-prevalence populations. By openly discussing the issues we aim to demonstrate that, while challenging, conducting robust, inclusive, and diverse studies is achievable with careful planning. We hope that this will encourage more researchers working with low-prevalence populations to adopt the big team science approach in the future and, as a result, push their fields towards meaningful progress.