The U.S. National Science Foundation CIREN project provides training and mentorship opportunities to new cyberinfrasturcture (CI) facilitators. The training curriculum for new CI facilitators includes 256 hours of training including a 6-month mentored project with an experience CI facilitator.
CI facilitators who have completed the NSF CIREN training and mentorship programs can continue to be supported to work on research engagements with local, cross-institutional, or national projects. They may also elect to serve as mentors to new CI facilitators entering the program.
Training Curriculum

Includes 256 hours of training:
- CyberAmbassador Certification
- NSF CIREN Training (overview, project management, cross-institutional and national projects, continuing education)
- Community (local and national computational resources)
- Project Management
- Elective Courses (high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning (ML), or artificial intellegence (AI))
Mentorship Program
CI facilitators are paired with an experienced CI facilitator who mentors them through the NSF CIREN Training Curriculum and a 6-month initial research engagement project with a local principle investigator (PI).

- Review project descriptions received from PIs who request NSF CIREN projects. Help determine which projects will be executed and paired with available CI facilitators.
- Complete a project intake interview with a project PI.
- Complete a NSF CIREN project work plan.
- Work on a collaborative NSF CIREN project (6-months) with a PI and their team and hold regular collaborative meetings.
- Complete mid-project and final project reports.
- Attend monthly NSF CIREN community meetings.
- Attend weekly meetings with a NSF CIREN mentor.
- Present final NSF CIREN project results during a NSF CIREN community meeting.
Facilitator Time Commitments

Per 25% effort, CI facilitators …
- are assigned one research engagement project.
- take 40 hours of continuing education and training courses per year.
- attend monthly NSF CIREN community meetings.
- contribute to NSF’s ACCESS program.
Interested in being a CI facilitator?
CI facilitators are supported for at least 25% of their time while engaged in training, mentorship, and research engagements. If you are interested in learning more about being a NSF CIREN CI facilitator please complete the following Google web form.