Interdisciplinary teams are essential to meeting core ND-EPSCoR goals related to strengthening North Dakota’s capacity, capability, and workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. However, it is not always obvious how to build those interdisciplinary teams, or how to support them so that they can lead to long-term sustainability and benefits. This presentation is intended to help institutional leaders as well as individual researchers think about how they can promote an interdisciplinary STEM ecosystem in North Dakota and their local contexts. It will address key considerations and offer action-oriented suggestions, particularly related to the structural, material, and interpersonal supports that help interdisciplinary teams thrive. Fundamentally, we argue that for interdisciplinary STEM teams to be successful, they must be built within a context that views research across disciplines as part of an interconnected ecosystem of knowledge and workforce development, in alignment with the ND Science and Technology Plan’s vision of positive knowledge development, economic growth, and change through collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning. This presentation is grounded in insights developed through a NSF/EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Fellowship conducted by University of North Dakota researchers from the Center for Engineering Education Research (CEER) in partnership with Montana State University.