Team Science Curriculum
and Facilitation
“Bold ideas and rapid technology innovation are critical to solving the nation’s toughest challenges.”
~ NSF Tech Accelerators
With the 2026 launch of the NSF Tech Accelerator program, NSF is continuing its commitment to funding cross-sectoral teams that can “leverage expertise and resources” to more quickly scale basic research, “ensuring breakthrough technologies move swiftly to the marketplace and reach Americans faster.” This model of research is characterized as convergence research and it’s something the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative (TDI) Center has facilitated for hundreds of teams.
NSF Convergence Accelerator
The vision and aim of the NSF Tech Accelerator parallels that of the NSF Convergence Accelerator program that was launched in 2019. The Convergence Accelerator program also funded cross-sectoral teams leveraging “basic research and discovery to accelerate solutions toward real-world impact.” The program recognized that the success of their initiatives was inextricably coupled to the strong performance of their cross-functional teams so they invested heavily in collaborative capacity building. The program contracted with the TDI Center from its inception in 2019 to its conclusion in 2024, where we provided training and facilitation support for the program and awarded projects. The Convergence Accelerator recognized the impact we had on their teams and in 2021, the TDI Center and Dr. Michelle Bennett were selected to serve as the exclusive Team Science faculty and lead the team science curriculum for the program.
What we Developed and Delivered
As the team science faculty, we developed and iterated a unified and integrated team science curriculum, delivering it to hundreds of teams in the Convergence Accelerator program. We worked intimately with program officers to design and refine a curriculum to suit the specific needs of their convergence teams. We provided instruction and facilitation, and developed resources – such as collaboration agreement templates – that were customised for the specific needs of these cross-sectoral teams. We developed and facilitated Toolbox Dialogue sessions for every team, and co-designed and co-produced a NSF team science video series; as well as provided consultation hours for teams, aimed at addressing the specific challenges they were encountering.
“The TDI Center has been spectacularly effective at improving communication and building real team effort among our highly diverse teams. What I love most about TDI is that it builds activities around efforts that are essential to the teams’ function – it’s not just abstract, it’s immediately applicable.”
~Lara Campbell Former Executive Director, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, The White House;Former Program Director, Convergence Accelerator Program, NSF
What We Do
Facilitating team science has been central to our work at the TDI Center since our inception. We have a long history of collaborating with federal programs at the NSF, NASA, DOE, and NOAA to name a few; and we work diligently to bolster the capacity of the teams they fund to conduct successful scientific research. We do this through developing curriculum, facilitating structured dialogue to bolster perspective taking and team reflexivity, and consulting with teams to address the unique challenges they may be facing.
“I had the privilege of observing TDI over five years, assisting interdisciplinary projects in the NSF Convergence Accelerator as they matured into cohesive, high-performing teams. The teams that took TDI’s principles to heart were some of the most successful ones in the program. These principles apply to all types of organizations, from academia to startups all the way up to large corporations. If you’re utilizing cross-functional teams in your organization, TDI can maximize their effectiveness and potential for developing innovative solutions to complex challenges.”
~ Mike Pozmantier CEO, Alpha Level;Former Program Director, Convergence Accelerator Program, NSF
How We Can Help
We built the team science curriculum the NSF Tech Accelerator program has adopted, and we understand that our curriculum is a strong foundation for getting teams pointed in the right direction. We also understand that cross-sectoral collaboration is complex, so having experts that can address your specific challenges will place your team ahead of others – that’s what we can do.
The Tech Accelerator program may be new, but the need is the same. The objective is the same. We are team science experts that designed, built, and iterated the program to fit the specific challenges cross-sectoral teams face. We are available to partner with team(s) and help them build collaborative capacity to increase the likelihood that they develop breakthrough technologies and move them quickly to market.
Reach out – let’s talk about what your team (or cohort) needs and how we can support you.