Research & Innovation Office Faculty Fellows

The Research & Innovation Office (RIO) Faculty Fellows Program is a campus-wide research and creative works leadership program that supports rising �� faculty interested in furthering their leadership skills to achieve maximum impact within and beyond the campus.

Fellows work as individuals and as a cohort on three broad areas: Research Leadership, Collaboration, and Systems Thinking—along with team building and academic management, scholarly communication, ethics and values, and personal and professional coaching.

Note: Applications are now open for the 2025 cohort.

Program Framework

Application Information

Testimonial—2019 Cohort

"For Assistant or Associate professors, the program is unmatched in terms of visioning, scholarly growth, communications training, confidence and campus connectivity with other faculty. When I think about leadership, I think immediately of my experience in the RIO Faculty Fellows program."

Testimonial–2020 Cohort

"RIO Faculty Fellows is a vital program for fostering leadership, communication and connection across campus. It has not only inspired me to create a deeper and more expansive research plan, and to work further for structural change—it has also given me the tools to know best how to do that."

Testimonial–2020 Cohort

"The curriculum encourages personal growth and includes in-depth communication trainings, and research-backed content on interpersonal skills and leadership styles."

Testimonial–2018 Cohort

"Of all of the leadership trainings I have been a part of (at least five), this was the best one, by far."

Testimonial–2018 Cohort

"Competencies that were enhanced were in the areas of communication, navigating interpersonal relationships strategically, prioritizing time for introspection and getting a clear vision of the kind of leader one wants to become."

Testimonial–2018 Cohort

"Invaluable program that builds leadership capacity, empowers faculty to elevate their work to be more visible, and build collaborative connections across the campus."

Testimonial–2018 Cohort

"The tail is no longer wagging the dog—instead of doing a series of projects opportunistically, I created a vision to pursue through this program."

Testimonial–2019 Cohort

"Thanks to this network, the benefits from this transformative program are ongoing and expansive, yielding new collaborations and strengthening the relationships that enable creativity, innovation and growth across campus."

Testimonial–2018 Cohort

"The program has sincerely enhanced my vision thinking for the campus and I have a broader understanding of how things work on different parts of campus and who I can talk to about new ideas."

Testimonial–2020 Cohort

"The RIO Faculty Fellows program has taught me how to be a better leader and how to communicate my research to broader publics more effectively, and it has guided me in both through the close bonding with a cohort of brilliant and thoughtful peers."

People

View leadership, current and past cohorts, video lectures and more.

Mission & Vision

The RIO Faculty Fellows program is designed to:

Identify early-to-mid career CU tenure-track professors that show strong potential in leadership;
Support the capacity of faculty to lead large impact research, innovation and creative work collaborations;
Build a cross-campus scholarly network that will extend across cohorts; and
Inspire the CU academic community.

Challenges & Priorities

Collaboration and team building/management

Academic and scholarly communication

Systems thinking

Equity, ethics and values

Personal and professional relationship building

Questions?

Please contact Program Director Kirsten Rowell: kirsten.rowell@colorado.edu.

RIO Faculty Fellows News & Announcements

All News & Announcements

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