Session Description: The complexity of today’s most urgent societal challenges is transforming how scientists do their work, requiring both intellectual and interpersonal collaboration. Facilitation is a professional practice-based form of expertise that supports group members to do their best thinking. Yet previous examinations of facilitation in scientific settings have not adequately recognized how the nature of scientific teamwork requires a distinct approach to facilitating scientific teams. This talk presents work-in-progress to articulate the value and practice of science facilitation. First, we present our proposed definition for science facilitation and a simple framework for understanding the components of scientific facilitation expertise. Second, we describe how science facilitation is developed through reflection. Third, we explain how scientific facilitation could be more widely incorporated into research by describing three pathways to expand the use of facilitation theory and techniques in collaborative scientific research: developing facilitation skills among scientists leading teams, using broadly-trained facilitators, and hiring specialized science facilitators. We discuss the pros and cons of each path and suggest criteria for selecting the right approach for a given project.

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Presenters:

• Megan Jones - Research Scientist, Colorado State University

• Amanda Cravens - Research Social Scientist, U.S. Geological Survey