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Training & Capacity Building Program

CZI Science Grantees and Partners

The Training & Capacity Building Program for CZI Science offers training series designed specifically for our Science grantees. These sessions aim to provide opportunities to grow and sharpen professional skills, foster collaboration, and learn from experts. Check out resources from previous trainings and stay tuned for our upcoming series announcements.

Unless indicated otherwise, the training sessions are open to CZI Science grantees and their team and/or group members, and to partners and collaborators of CZI Science.

Do you have other questions or needs around professional development in science? Contact our team: mcb-science@chanzuckerberg.com.


2024 Central Science Training Series

This year we are organizing a variety of Central Science Training series and workshops to cover the most requested topics from our grantees, including grant writing, leadership, project management, business skills and science communications. The series will take place in the spring, summer, and fall of 2024. Please check back in on this webpage for more details and registration opportunities as they become available.

 


     SCIENTIFIC MANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP 
Welch_Amanda headshot

The Training and Capacity Building for CZI Science team is excited to partner with the AtKisson Training Group (ATG) to host a Scientific Manuscript Development Workshop for our science grantees. The workshop draws upon narrative writing to help in communicating your scientific story to the audience—and making your ideas stick in their minds. 

Each week participants will meet with trainer Amanda Welch from ATG and a group of your peers for an hour-long interactive session that covers different aspects of journal articles. Between these courses, homework that guides you through drafting different portions of your article, and office hours for coaching and accountability on your writing, you'll become a more confident and effective writer. 

The virtual workshop will be hosted from 9am - 10am PT during the below dates on in English on Zoom on covering the following topics in each course: 
  • Oct 30: Introduction to narrative structure. Learn the aspects of crafting a compelling scientific article.
  • Nov 6: Storyboarding the results section and presenting your data. Identify how to clearly describe the results. Learn how to make effective figures and graphs to present your data. Homework includes writing the results section.
  • Nov 20: Framing the problem and discussing the results. Identify the parts of a discussion and necessary content. Homework includes writing the discussion section.
  • Dec 4: Publication ethics and going beyond grammar. Learn the ethics of scientific communication and how to avoid any issues. Learn aspects of good writing that focuses on how to best convey your ideas—not just mechanics.
  • Dec 11: Introducing your story. Identify your audience and learn how that influences the content of your introduction. Homework includes writing the introduction section.
  • Dec 18: Titles, abstracts, and revisions. Learn how to effectively bring readers to your article and help them find out information they need. Also, learn how to respond to reviewer comments.
  • Biweekly office hours, between training weeks, for drop-in questions, writing time, and accountability

Application period now closed.


     PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR SCIENTISTS 
Lou Woodley
CAMILLE SANTISTEVAN

This fall we are offering a Project Management for Scientists training, hosted by Lou Woodley and Camille Santistevan of Center for Scientific Collaboration and Community Engagement. The training will kick off with a preview introductory webinar in October, followed by a two-day seminar in December for select attendees. These sessions will provide attendees with the opportunity to take an applied, strategic approach to planning and managing the delivery of a collaborative project. 

Introduction to Project Management for Scientists
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
9-11am PT

Register Here

This two hour virtual training session will provide an overview of the concepts and approaches scientists can use in managing their collaborative projects. In addition to presentation and discussion, we’ll work through a series of case studies specific to a range of STEM contexts. Participants will leave the session able to:

  • Describe the key components of a project and the relationship between different types of project
  • Advocate for the competencies of an effective project leader, whatever their job title
  • Discuss the benefits and challenges of the iterative approaches required for many STEM projects

CZI Project Management for Scientists Seminar
December 3 - 4, 2024
8am-2pm PT, Daily

Apply Here

The two-day CZI Project Management for Scientists Seminar will give you the strategies and skills you need to deliver on collaborative projects. While you may not be a formal or full-time project manager, we’ll discuss how you can still infuse project management concepts into your work for smoother and more enjoyable project work. You’ll gain new language and concepts to describe managing your projects, tools and approaches to support your work, and connection with others who are also coordinating collaborative work.

The virtual course will be hosted December 3 through December 4, 2024, from 8am-2pm PT in English on Zoom. Topics will include how to plan for the successful delivery of your project, assigning and setting expectations about project roles, coordinating  communications about the flow of work on a project, and common challenges encountered in managing projects.  

The application portal will be open until November 7, 2024 at 5 PM Pacific Time. Apply as soon as possible; applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Admitted applicants will be notified no later than Nov 13, 2024.

Eligibility & Expectations

  • Full two-day course attendance and interaction is expected from all participants; including any pre work and homework around your project plans
  • The course will require your full focus and it will not be possible to pay attention to your other responsibilities and duties during the course hours on the two days of training
  • Participants will need a web camera, microphone, ability to use Google Workspace, and a quiet place with reliable internet from which to attend the course
  • The seminar is free of charge
  • The course is designed for senior postdocs, staff scientists, and early career PIs (within 6 years of your first independent position)
  • Eligibility is limited to those who can come with a project for planning and assessment (projects at the early stages will be most useful in this exercise)
  • Participants must be a CZI Science grantee, either funded directly or on a team and/or group member of a grantee, or a collaborator of CZI Science
  • The course is capped at 30 people

 ENHANCING YOUR RESEARCH VISIBILITY: FROM STORY TO SLIDES
Thi Nguyen

Join host Thi Nguyen for a two-part workshop series designed to elevate your research communication skills. Whether you're looking to boost the visibility of your work or improve the art of delivering compelling research talks, this series has you covered. Learn to craft engaging scientific presentations and neuroscience-informed slide decks that keep your audience awake and engaged.  

SciComms 101: Anatomy of a Scientific Talk
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
9-11am PT

Recording and Resources

Research presentations have become an essential tool to share your research with the scientific community. Your audience may be scientists, the general public, and funders. To ensure you are effectively communicating, your audience must comprehend how your research fits into a larger context and its potential impact. This workshop will guide you through the essential components of a scientific talk, pulling strategies from neuroscience, psychology, and improv theater. By the end of the session, you'll be equipped to structure your talk to be compelling, present your research with confidence, and be memorable.

Level Up Your Slide Design: Techniques for Engaging and Effective Scientific Presentations
Wednesday, September 25, 2024
9-11am PT

Recording and Resources

This comprehensive training webinar is designed to elevate the visualizations for your scientific presentations, making your data more compelling and your message clear.


  FACULTY APPLICATION BOOTCAMP 
Chris Golde
Arne Bakker

This summer, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) is hosting the fourth edition of our virtual Faculty Application Bootcamp. This bootcamp is for PhD students and postdocs from CZI-supported and associated labs pursuing a US-based faculty position this academic year. 

August 12 - 16, 2024 - Daily from 8am-2pm Pacific Time
Virtual Zoom Meeting held in English

Application period has now closed. 

The CZI Faculty Application Bootcamp will give a systematic overview of all aspects of the faculty job search in the United States. Topics will cover CVs and cover letters, research, teaching and diversity statements, job and chalk talks, and interviewing and negotiating.

This practical and experiential course also includes small group exercises and stories from those who recently completed a successful search. Primary instructors are Chris Golde (Stanford University) and Arne Bakker (CZI), with additional guest presenters. Review the draft course schedule here.


  GRANT WRITING FOR SCIENCE
Morgan-Face Shot-Ocean-Cropped-Light

Dr. Morgan Giddings of SciFoundry, will be provided multiple trainings for participants to learn how to increase their science grant writing success. In addition to a 3 -day bootcamp, she'll be offering a training series that covers the four steps to funding

Grant Writing for Science

In a four-part series hosted by Dr. Morgan Giddings of SciFoundry, participants will learn the four steps to funding which cover topics such as deciphering your reviewer’s interests, crafting a compelling grant project proposal, highlighting the strengths of your team, and outlining the effective execution of your proposed work to bolster your overall proposal.

  • The Four Steps to Funding Part 1: What is the 'Why' that gets your reviewer interested and excited to support your proposal for funding?
    Tuesday, March 19, 2024
    Recording and Resources

What gets your reviewer interested and excited to support your proposal for funding? In this first of the four-part series, we’ll go into the "why(s)" of your proposal, and whether those will connect with your reviewer in a positive way, or not.

  • The Four Steps to Funding Part 2: What makes a great grant project? Does it have solid rigor and premise? 
    Thursday, March 21, 2024
    Recording and Resources

The “what” is the heart of your proposal - what project you are proposing to do. It will determine whether reviewers are excited or unsupportive of your funding. Learn how to build and write the What with a clear premise and sufficient rigor, so you can get reviewers excited about your project. 

  • The Four Steps to Funding Part 3: Who is the team behind the execution? Is it convincing? 
    Tuesday, April 9th, 2024
    Recording and Resources

Your reviewer and funder cares deeply about "who" they are supporting for funding. Are they confident that you can do the work proposed, and handle challenges or roadblocks when they arise? Learn how to convey your powerful “who,” going far beyond just the Biosketches or CV’s. 

  • The Four Steps to Funding Part 4:How will the proposed research be effectively executed? Is it realistic? 
    Tuesday, April 11, 2024
    Recording and Resources

It’s tempting to start your proposal first with the question of “how will I do the work/experiments.” Yet if you don’t carefully align the How with the rest of the proposal, it will come across as confusing, leading to no funding. Learn how to construct your "how(s)" to align with and support the rest of your proposal, for the highest chances of funding. 

Grant Writing for Scientists Bootcamp: What it Takes to Write a Successful Proposal

June 18 - 20, 2024

This three-day virtual course provided foundational skills for science grant writing and guiding tools that can be applied to grants in any funding setting. This course will:

  • Give clarity on how to construct a project that your reviewers and funders want to support;
  • Leave participants with a clear understanding of what a stellar first page or specific aims page should look like for your project; and
  • Teach how to tell a compelling project story that will engage your proposal reviewers rather than creating boredom or frustration.

   SCIENCE LEADERSHIP
A photograph of Dr. Sam Krahl, who will facilitate the webinar series, posing for a ‘headshot’ photograph in front of a dark background. Sam is smiling and is dressed in a dark brown-green sports jacket and green polo shirt. He is wearing blue-framed  glasses, has short-cropped brown hair, and a full beard with grey in it. In this photograph he is in his early forties. He looks pretty friendly, if a bit posed!
In a three-part series hosted by Dr. Sam Krahl of EMBO Solutions, participants will gain the basics of lab leadership, discuss approaches to conflict management and team communication, and review the introductory principles of negotiation. The sessions will be a mixture of seminar style presentations, with space for reflection and questions around the discussed concepts.
  • Introduction to Lab Leadership
    Wednesday, May 1, 2024
    Recording and Resources

    In this 90-minute course, you’ll be introduced to the key concepts in EMBO’s Lab Leadership training. We’ll provide an overview on how to support your people to produce their best work, while taking care of their needs and development. 
  • Understanding Conflict Management and Communication
    Wednesday, May 8, 2024
    Recording and Resources

    With shifting dynamics and intensely pressured projects, our teams can face moments of conflict. In this 90-minute session you’ll learn how to approach the conflicts within your lab with clear and empathetic communication that can support resolution.
  • Introductory Principles of Negotiation
    Wednesday, May 15, 2024
    Recording and Resources

    Negotiation is not about winning and losing, it is about finding a way to aid one another to achieve the things we seek on both sides. Through this session you’ll learn how to approach negotiations in a way that maintains positive relationships with your peers, colleagues, and collaborators.
 EMBO Laboratory Leadership
 
A photograph of Dr. Sam Krahl, who will facilitate the webinar series, posing for a ‘headshot’ photograph in front of a dark background. Sam is smiling and is dressed in a dark brown-green sports jacket and green polo shirt. He is wearing blue-framed  glasses, has short-cropped brown hair, and a full beard with grey in it. In this photograph he is in his early forties. He looks pretty friendly, if a bit posed!
EMBO Natalie Bamford

The "EMBO Laboratory Leadership” course will explore your approach to leadership and help you define how you want to lead and manage your research group or other teams. The course is hosted by Dr. Sam Krahl and Dr. Natalie Bamford of EMBO Solutions, and is free of charge for participants.

First Offering: July 10 - July 12, 2024
Second Offering: September 16 - September 18, 2024

Daily from 8am-2pm Pacific Time
Virtual Zoom Meeting held in English

Application period has now closed. 

The course is focused on your leadership and the strategies and tools needed to run a productive research group. As you work to define your leadership style in this context, the course will provide insight into how to cultivate positive relationships, how teams work best together, and how to identify and resolve interpersonal barriers to the effective conduct of research. Throughout the course, the trainers will offer tools, techniques, and insights tailored specifically to the laboratory/research setting for the leadership of people, good communication, healthy resolution of conflict, and the management of workloads and responsibilities.

Each module begins with an introduction from the trainers, followed by the use of a range of interactive tools – both in self-reflection and in small group breakout activities – to integrate examples, experiences, and ideas from participants into the learning environment.  

To keep the learning environment to an effective size for collaboration and support, we will be admitting participants through an application process. Admitted applicants will be notified no later than June 18, 2024.


2023 Central Science Training Series

Catch up on our 2023 training series with the recordings and resources. Check out the details on each series below and our Wistia page for all video content.

SCIENCE LEADERSHIP SERIES

This three part series will cover introductory skills that will help you understand your own leadership style and the essentials to  preparing and designing a successful science collaboration. 

GRANT WRITING FOR SCIENCE SERIES

In a two part series hosted by Dr. Morgan Giddings of SciFoundry, participants learned the connection between their science, their writing, their skills and their community and how to develop all of these aspects in a grant proposal that is engaging and a strong candidate for funding.

  • A Roadmap to Science Grant Proposal Success: The Critical Path Method  (Part 1), Hosted on June 14, 2023
  • A Roadmap to Science Grant Proposal Success: The Critical Path Method  (Part 2), Hosted on June 16, 2023

SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SERIES

This three part series, hosted by Dr. Thi Nguyen, focused on how to increase your communication skills, covering the basics of giving a scientific talk, tailoring your message for different audiences, and building the confidence you need to speak in any context. 

  • SciComms 101: Anatomy of a Scientific Talk, Hosted on September 13, 2023
  • Tailoring Your Message for Specific Audiences, Hosted on September 27, 2023
  • How to Gain Confidence in Public Speaking, Hosted on October 11, 2023

HOW TO BE A STRATEGIC LAB LEADER 

This four-part series, hosted by Dr. Thi Nguyen, explores the principles of setting strategy as an early career investigator, and is designed to facilitate execution of your strategic plan. The workshop helps to create a strategic plan that incorporates your research, service, and mentoring priorities while considering your well-being. 


Single-Cell Biology

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT TRAINING SERIES - 2023

A three part series, hosted by Shanell Williams of the UCSF California Preterm Birth Initiative, to help researchers establish collaborative research priorities, form Community Advisory Boards, and disseminate your research with a broad scope of audiences.

  • Research Priority Setting by Affected Communities (RPAC), Hosted on April 11, 2023
  • Community Advisory Board Formation 101, Hosted on May 9, 2023
  • Creative and Effective Dissemination: Showcasing the Voices for Birth Justice platform and campaign, Hosted on September 12, 2023


FUNDAMENTALS OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT - 2022

Through our 2022 three-part virtual training series, hosted by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, we offered grantees and their teams the opportunity to grow and sharpen their skills around community engagement and supported an environment where researchers and communities of color and historically marginalized communities can seamlessly work together. 

  • Fundamentals of Community Engagement Part 1 - Frameworks, Hosted on September 7, 2022
  • Fundamentals of Community Engagement Part 2 - Authentic Partnerships, Hosted on September 21, 2022
  • Fundamentals of Community Engagement Part 3 - Sustainability, Hosted on October 5, 2022

2022 Central Science Training Series Resources

  • Principles of Leadership, Interpersonal Communication & Giving Feedback
    Hosted by Dr. Sam Krahl of EMBO Solutions on May 17, 2022
    Resources
  • Building Effective Teams & Delegating for Productivity and Skills Development
    Hosted by Dr. Sam Krahl of EMBO Solutions on May 31, 2022
    Resources
  • Understanding and Managing Conflict & Inclusive Values That Support Diversity in Teams
    Hosted by Dr. Sam Krahl of EMBO Solutions on  June 13, 2022
    Resources
  • Effective Mentorship in STEMM: What’s Cultural Diversity Got to Do With It
    Hosted by Dr. Angela Byars-Winston on June 27, 2022
    Resources
  • Fundamentals of Community Engagement
    Hosted by Community-Campus Partnerships for Health on July 11, 2022
    Resources
  • Open Science Participation: From Research Scientists to the General Public
    Hosted by Kate Hertweck, PhD, CZI on July 26, 2022
    Recording and Resources
  • The Basics Of Science Communication Skills: Telling Your Story to Effectively Engage Your Audience
    Hosted by Dr. Jonathan Garlick on September 28, 2022
    Recording and Resources
  • Share Your Research: How To Give a Good Talk
    Hosted by Dr. Thi Nguyen, Science Communication Lab, on October 12, 2022
    Recording and Resources
  • Principles and Strategies for Culturally Relevant Science Communication
    Hosted by Dr. Mónica Feliú-Mójer, Ciencia Puerto Rico, on October 19, 2022
    Recording and Resources
  • Sensemaking: Evidence-Based Strategies For Your Science Communication
    Hosted by Liz Neeley, Liminal, on October 26, 2022
    Recording and Resources

Additional Resources

General Capacity Building Partners' Trainings

  • To help support the CZI community working tirelessly to achieve their goals, become more resilient, and respond to unfolding crises, we've assembled a collection of expert trainings valuable to grantees and their partners across CZI portfolio areas. In these sessions, expert trainers will provide advice on how to best approach these challenges, teach new skills and practices, and answer questions that you and your community may have. Sign Up for General Capacity Building Partners' Newsletters 

2021 Science Trainings

  • Check out our Wistia page for previous MCB Science trainings. 

Open Science Resources Website

  • This publicly available resource, supported by the CZI Open Science program, features information on applying open science approaches specifically catered to our biomedical research community. The site contains videos that are also available on the CZI Open Science Resources Channel.