Scientific Community Engagament Fundamentals (CEF26W)

This eight-week course is designed to offer new and existing community managers a core set of actionable skills and strategies. Participants meet twice a week, with lecture-style content interspersed with discussion and project work.

Our winter offering of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26W) will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Thursday, 19 March until Thursday, 7 May.

The key dates are:

  • Social hour: Thursday, 19 March at 12pm – 1pm EDT / 4pm – 5pm UTC
  • Monday lessons: 23, 30 March; 6,13, 20, 27 April; 4 May at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTC
  • Thursday Co-Labs: 26 March; 2, 9,16, 23, 30 April at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTC
  • Graduation: Thursday, 7 May at 12pm – 2pm EDT / 4pm – 6pm UTC

Registration deadline: Thursday, 5 March 2026

REGISTER

More information is available on the CEF webpage.

Infrastructure update: CSCCE switches to Zeffy for training sales

As of January 2026, we’re pausing our use of Eventbrite for handling registration and payment processing for our trainings and switching to Zeffy. We began using Eventbrite several years ago as a simple solution for course and Mini-workshop registrations made using a credit card. Over the years, Eventbrite’s functionality has changed, and so with the transition to a new year, we’re giving a new platform a shot! 

This blog post is intended to walk you through the new registration interface in Zeffy, including a couple of nuances that make it slightly different from Eventbrite. If you have any questions about Zeffy, or you’re having any difficulty registering for a course or Mini-workshop, please contact training@cscce.org. We will continue offering registration via invoice if that works best for your organization. 

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An update to CSCCE’s Project Management for Scientists Bootcamp (PMB)

In 2025, we launched a new general registration project management training designed specifically for STEM (and STEM-adjacent) professionals. The training debuted in two parts: an introductory Mini-workshop (also known as PMI) and a three-week, six-module bootcamp (aka PMB). In 2026, based on feedback from participants, we’re combining these two parts (PMI + PMB) into a single training offering (that also includes a new orientation option – see below for more). 

In this blog post, you’ll find an overview of the training, as well as what these recent changes mean for individual registrants, private cohorts, and participants in the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. If you have any questions at all, please reach out to training@cscce.org. 

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Seven more STEM community managers have completed the CSCCE Certification Program!

Next week, we’ll be hosting our final Quarterly Skills Share (QSS) session of 2025! These sessions are a regular part of the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program that are both an opportunity for knowledge-sharing among peers, and a regular check-in at which we share news and updates.

One of those updates is that we have SEVEN more CSCCE-certified community managers to celebrate! 

Rieley Auger (Global Land Programme), Sophie Bui (National Center for Supercomputing Applications), Yan-Kay Ho (Open Bioeconomy Lab & Reclone – Reagent Collaboration Network), Allie Lau (American Physical Society), Zoë Leanza (Sage Bionetworks), Johanssen Obanda (Crossref), and Curtis Sharma (Research Data Alliance) all completed their program requirements, and at next month’s QSS we’ll all get to celebrate their graduation! 

This blog post highlights our newest grads’ paths through the program, as well as some reflections on what they learned during their time with us. And, for those less familiar with the program, we’ve also included a brief summary of what it involves. 

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Training update: Let us know what CSCCE trainings you’d like to take in 2026!

As part of our mission to professionalize the role of the community manager in STEM, we’ve developed a comprehensive catalogue of online professional development trainings.

These Multi-week courses and Mini-workshops are designed in such a way that learners can pick and choose those most relevant to their needs, but with a throughline of vocabulary and frameworks that connect into a bigger picture. 

While we know that these trainings are making a real difference to our learners and the communities they support (see our recent evaluation of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals), we’re also aware that many STEM professionals are feeling the pressures of budget cuts, making it harder to prioritize taking our trainings. 

As we look ahead to 2026, we’re reaching out to our community to ask: 

What CSCCE trainings would you like to take in 2026? 

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Introducing the inaugural Birdaro training program cohort!

At the end of last month we launched the pilot cohort of the Birdaro training program for open-source leaders, which will run for 12 weeks until mid-December 2025. 

Thanks to strong interest in the program from a range of projects, we have put together a  cohort that represents a variety of focus areas, fiscal homes, project stages and project sizes. You can read more about how we intentionally built this cohort of participants, and used their input to iteratively shape the pilot curriculum in an earlier blog post. 

In a new series of five blog posts on the Birdaro website, we’re introducing you to the teams taking part in the Birdaro 2025 pilot cohort. You can click through to read more about each of these projects below, and visit this page of the Birdaro website to learn more about individual team members. 

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We’re reviewing applications for the first Birdaro training program!

We wanted to share an update on the application and selection process for the first cohort of the Birdaro training program, including how it’s been influencing our next steps with program design. 

It’s been a busy few weeks as we’ve worked in an intentionally iterative manner to review applications and work with applicants to determine the schedule and timing for this brand new training for open-source project leaders. We received applications from more than 50 open-source projects in just three weeks and we’ve been enjoying learning more about the projects and what their needs are. 

If you’re just hearing about Birdaro now and wishing you’d applied, the strong interest we’ve received means that we hope that we’ll be able to run another cohort next year. So make sure you’re signed up to our newsletter to stay up to date. 

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The Birdaro Training Program – supporting open-source leaders

Announcing a new training opportunity for open-source leaders.

Open-source projects are a unique combination of volunteer collaboration and product development. As an open-source project becomes popular or heavily used, its creators face complex questions like “how can we support contributors so that they stay involved with the project as demands increase?” Or, “how can we fund maintainers to ensure project continuity?” Or, “what infrastructure do we need to put in place to gather input from users?”

Over the past three years, we’ve worked with several open-source projects as clients, and engaged with the NSF’s Pathways to Open Source Ecosystems program to develop training for project leaders as they worked to scale and grow their projects. 

Now, thanks to funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, we’re expanding on what we’ve learned to launch a new initiative, the Birdaro training program, making it available (for free in its pilot phase!) to those in decision-making positions in open-source projects as they navigate growth, scaling, and sustainability of their projects.

In this blog post, we share more information about the program, who is eligible to apply, and how to submit your application, as well as other ways you can get involved in Birdaro as a guest speaker, resource curator, and more. Please send any questions or inquiries to info@birdaro.org. 

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Training update: Three CSCCE multi-week courses coming up later this year!

Registration is now open for our “Fall” cohorts of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF), Nurturing Online Communities (NOC), and Project Management for Scientists (PMB)! 

These trainings will round out our offerings for 2025. This blog post will give you a sense of who each training is designed for and how they connect to the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. We’ve also created a new infographic detailing the impact of CEF on our 350+ CEF graduates and the communities they serve. If you’re considering the course, but need documentation to back up your professional development funding request, hopefully this will help! 

 If you have any questions, please let us know by emailing training@cscce.org. 

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Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF)

This eight-week course is designed to offer new and existing community managers a core set of actionable skills and strategies. Participants meet twice a week, with lecture-style content interspersed with discussion and project work.

Our fall offering of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF25F) will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Thursday, 4 September until Thursday, 23 October.

The key dates are: 

  • Social hour: Thursday, 4 September at 10am – 11am EDT / 2pm – 3pm UTC
  • Monday lessons: 8, 15, 22, 29 September; 6*, 20 October at 10am – 11:30am EDT / 2pm – 3:30pm UTC
  • Thursday Co-Labs: 11, 18, 25 September; 2, 9*, 16 October at 10am – 11:30am EDT / 2pm – 3:30pm UTC
  • Graduation: 23 October at 10am – 12pm EDT / 2pm – 4pm UTC

*CSCCE will be closed on Monday, 13 October 2025 in observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. To accommodate this, we have slightly adjusted the schedule for this CEF cohort. “Reading Week” will now only take place during one session, on 2 October 2025, and the Week 7 lesson that would have taken place on Monday, 13 October will be held on Thursday, 9 October.

REGISTER (deadline: 1 August 2025)

Pricing:

CSCCE offers rates to reflect the different organizations that community managers work for and the range of budgets that may be available.

  • General rate: $1275 – For non-profits.
  • Supporting rate: $1575 – Aimed at for-profits and others who would like to support the participation of others.
  • Discounted rate: Depending on participants paying the supporting rate, we may be able offer a limited number of discounted tickets for this cohort. If you would like to participate but your organization is unable to cover the whole cost, please complete this course discount request form.

Find out more about CSCCE’s refund policy.

More information is available on the CEF webpage.