It is important to stress that the presence of a consortium need not preclude projects performed by smaller groups or based on ideas from individual investigators. Indeed, such “side projects” are often enabled by providing many groups access to a large, shared data set, so that new ideas can be tested in a more powerful way. If multiple investigators have similar interests, then open communication of ideas and plans can permit collaboration or at least coordination of efforts that take advantage of the large, shared resource. Finally, broad access to summary results and individual level data maximizes the utility of both meta-analytic efforts and of the underlying data, permitting use of the data and results not only by members of the consortium but also by the broader scientific community.
