Inclusive and Reflexive Facilitation Fellowship (IRFF) is a free new program for career development professionals who support scientists. IRFF will provide facilitators and trainers (or facili-trainers, as we call them) with tools and training to hone their facilitation skills and cultivate reflexivity and inclusion as core elements of their practice, and opportunities for mentoring and to connect with a community of practice.

Apply Here!

ELIGIBILITY

This fellowship program is for you if you:

• Wish to enhance your professional capacity to support scientists in the broader scientific ecosystem (academia, nonprofit, government, industry)
• Want to improve your facilitation skills and are committed to improving inclusion in science
• Are an individual with a science background and a doctoral degree and who works in a facilitation or training capacity supporting career development (and has for at 2-3 years) OR has a master’s degree and 3 years + of experience
• Are interested in workshopping a career development training for scientists related to leadership, science communication, and well-being, among other topics; can be an existing workshop/class or being developed
• Value many ways of knowing and being, self-awareness, and want to provide culturally responsive, impactful, personal goal-oriented learning experiences
• Seek tailored interdisciplinary programming in reflexivity, human-centered virtual learning, and managing uncomfortable conversations using psychological, anthropological, and improvisational theater frameworks
• Desire a supportive community 
• Desire practice in integrating inclusion and reflexivity into training 
• Want to cultivate a more accountable, and just scientific ecosystem
• Are willing to participate in a pilot program, and can communicate with us the impactful components and other constructive feedback 

Over the course of the six-month program, fellows will participate in 9 online training sessions and one, two day in-person session (October 15 - October 17 2025, St. Louis, Missouri, paid for by the IRFF). They will become part of a supportive online peer community of facili-trainers, and prepare and iterate an interactive webinar on a professional development topic. The program is entirely virtual and has been designed with busy professionals in mind.

We have assembled an interdisciplinary team of instructors (we’re seriously excited!) that comprises individuals with decades of experience facili-training, nationally and internationally. They will support fellows in their exploration and development of their own facilitation and training style.

The inaugural cohort will begin September 2025 and end February 2026, with one, two day in-person session October 15 - October 17 2025 in St. Louis, Missouri, paid for by the IRFF.  Each cohort will have ~8 fellows.  

KEY PROGRAM COMPONENTS

The Inclusive and Reflexive Facilitation Fellowship program is centered providing a space and community of practice for participants to talk about the intersections of training the science workforce, access and inclusion, and effective facilitation. Fellows will participate in training sessions, small group and improv activities, and reflection discussions focused on the following three pillars to prepare a facili-trainer:

Principles of inclusion and reflexivity: Determining how to create inclusive learning spaces, including ways to make individuals feel welcome to bring their full selves and share lived experiences and knowledge. Practicing the examination of your own beliefs, practices, reactions, and motives and how they influence what we do or think in a situation (aka reflexivity).

Strategies for effective human-centered facilitation: Figuring out how to effectively engage a group of highly skilled learners and promote interaction in a meaningful way. Using principles of social psychology and practicing intention setting to create a warm learning space for their community. Rehearsing improvisational theater techniques to help with thinking on your feet and connecting more effectively with audiences.

Enhancing and sustaining a practice: Consider capacity building for your practice; relationship building; setting and negotiating contracts to meet your definitions of success.

PROGRAM DATES AND PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS

The fellowship program comprises 10 sessions from September 2025 February 2026, with 9 online sessions and two in-person sessions. Virtual sessions are on Thursdays 11:00 am - 1pm ET on the following dates: Sept 11, Sept 25, Oct 15-17 (in-person sessions), Nov 6, Nov 20, Dec 4, Jan 15, Jan 29, Feb 12. Virtual sessions will be recorded and available to watch after. However, we encourage Fellows to attend sessions synchronously to get the most out of them. The expectation is that missed sessions will be watched afterwards. We estimate fellows will spend ~52 hours over six months on program activities, including virtual and in-person sessions.

This program is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

IRFF will provide facilitators and trainers (or facili-trainers, as we call them) who support the career development of scientists with tools and training to hone their facilitation skills and cultivate reflexivity and inclusion as a core elements of their practice, and opportunities for mentoring and to connect with a community of practice. 

APPLICATION COMPONENTS

• The application deadline is July 14 11:59PM EST, 2025
• 2-page (maximum) CV that includes your experience in facilitation, training, diversity, equity and inclusion work, or any other work you think is related to the themes and values of this program
• Contact and demographic information
• Short answers (150 words max) to the following questions:
  1. How does participating in this program fit into your long-term career goals as a career development professional supporting scientists? (150 words)
  2. What type of facilitation and/or training do you currently do? Please provide concrete examples, telling us more about the topics and what types of sessions, classes or workshops you facilitate. 
  3. A key part of this fellowship is developing a community of inclusive, reflexive facilitators. In what ways would you contribute to this community of practice? 
  4. How will the training that you receive during this fellowship benefit your own facilitation and the broader networks you’re part of? 
  5. As a facilitator/trainer, it is important to have some level of comfort with holding space for many different viewpoints. Provide an example of a time where you facilitated an uncomfortable group conversation. What was the situation? How did you move the conversation forward? 
  6. During this fellowship, you will enhance and rehearse a workshop that you’ve already developed. 1. Describe the topic of the workshop, the audiences, and two learning objectives. 2. Which aspects of this workshop are you looking to improve through this fellowship?
  7. In the last cohort, the network of fellows and exchange of ideas led to new collaborations. In this fellowship, you may be co-creating new topics, too. In that case, what topics or areas of expertise are you looking to weave into your work?

Apply Here!