With teaching and learning practices deeply affected by local and situated circumstances, developing a one-size-fits-all model for interdisciplinary courses is fraught with challenges. Nevertheless, in this paper, we present a potential method and template for building collaborative infrastructures, which we argue could be applied to most interdisciplinary activities.

In the presentation, we examine the importance of building collaborative infrastructure in interdisciplinary activities, using the master's programme developed by a 5-year NSF-funded Interdisciplinary Consortium for Applied Research in Ecology and Evolution (ICARE) as a case study. Here, collaborative infrastructure was created by using CoNavigator, a physical tool for interdisciplinary collaboration. At the management level, CoNavigator was used as a planning tool to ensure structure, transparency and coherence; at the practice level, the tool fostered agency, alignment of expectations and collaboration among participants.

A main finding from the case study is the need for a common thread and a clear visible structure. Offering collaborative initiatives such as the CoNavigator-sessions only as singular, isolated events - rather than essential ongoing processes - diminished their effectiveness. Results show that the students who were offered a clear plan for the entire process and involved in the collaborative infrastructure from day one, had a much more positive and productive outcome from the programme, compared to the students who were only part of single CoNavigator-sessions and without any introduction or follow-up.

The findings from the ICARE-programme emphasize the significance of developing robust, ongoing collaborative infrastructures and bring us closer to creating a general template for interdisciplinary activities.