Develop and foster a massive “knowledge network” that enables investigators from different disciplines to identify opportunities, establish collaborative efforts, and focus disparate expertise and approaches on problems of common interest. See ARISE 2 Report.
Tools like Google Scholar and PubMed already make scientific literature more accessible than ever before. But scientific papers are written in the jargon of their disciplines and published in highly specialized journals.
An online, visualized network that can reveal unexpected links between investigations in different fields or disciplines or suggest the deployment of new technology from one field into a different field could create a new research agenda and suggest new collaborative approaches. The development of a “Library of Congress” for the whole of scientific knowledge could be an immensely powerful means of leveraging scientific information, much of which is not readily comprehensible to the people whose research might thereby be transformed.
The Obama administration’s recently announced policy on open access to scientific literature is a step in the right direction. See John Holdren, “Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research,” Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, Executive Office of the President, Office of Science and Technology Policy, Washington, DC, February 22, 2013.
A 2010 presidential task force report requested by the Office of Science and Technology Policy notes the need to tackle the problem of massive scientific datasets. The report concludes that the nation is underinvesting in its data infrastructure, a conclusion that provided the justification for a $200 million “Big Data Research and Development Initiative” announced in March 2012. This initiative is most welcome and is consistent with the committee’s conclusion that a great deal is to be gained by ensuring that the information generated by our scientific enterprise is put to the fullest possible use. See Tom Kalil, “Big Data Is a Big Deal,” Office of Science and Technology Blog, March 29, 2012. blog 
A recent National Research Council (NRC) report promotes the concept of a knowledge network and information commons for human health information. See National Research Council, Toward Precision Medicine.
Expansion of this idea to the development of a common platform for the physical sciences and engineering as well as life sciences will require a substantial investment of resources and imagination. At present, we can conceive only a vague outline of such an infrastructure.
If achieved, this endeavor would result in the creation of a virtual research community accessible across academia, government, and industry.
This knowledge community would not be limited by physical proximity to universities or to corporations large enough to have their own basic research capabilities.
Such a resource would make it far easier for federal funding agencies to leverage their investments in research, avoid competition or needless duplication, and identify promising developments outside their immediate portfolios.
It would allow individuals from academia, the private sector, and federal agencies to find the collaborators necessary to move their projects forward.
And it could provide readily searchable and sortable access to vast stores of information, including new concepts and new methods, transdisciplinary funding opportunities, funded projects, patent filings, clinical trial results, public-private research ventures, transdisciplinary research centers, core facilities, and transdisciplinary training programs.
Developing such a knowledge network would in and of itself be a transdisciplinary endeavor.
A series of workshops should be held to develop a vision and plan for the knowledge network, bringing together experts from many stakeholder groups, including experts from diverse academic disciplines, the private sector (e.g., social network and search engine developers), and funding agencies.