A scientific network is like a brain: new connections create new ways the whole system thinks and operates. However, when researchers are simply encouraged to pick collaborators for a project (for example, by a traditional Request for Applications by a research funding agency), they tend to collaborate in their comfort zone, that is, to reproduce existing connections in the network by working with previous or anyway close collaborators. Implementing a network intervention on a scientific network means creating new links that cross scientific comfort zones. Moreover, researchers who create links, that is, collaborations, in a scientific network are rarely aware of the whole network structure. On the other hand, by mapping this structure and creating network-aware collaborations, we can create specific new links that enhance specific properties of a university's scientific network.
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