As part of the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS), the Team Science Professionals (TSP) Special Interest Group (SIG) was established in early 2024 to address the lack of a clearly defined training and career pathway for educators, scholars, and practitioners of team science. The SIG's inaugural mission is to standardize team science competencies and initiate a structured career pathway through the TSP Digital Badge Initiative, which will serve as the first national credential in team science.

Digital badges offer personalized training pathways, which are crucial in this relatively new professional field. They are a promising tool for professional development, and offer validated, electronic, and shareable indicators of skills and competencies. Literature supports the utility of digital badges to document skill progression, which is linked to career advancement, enhancing both credibility and legitimacy of badge holders.

The TSP SIG's Digital Badge Initiative has developed certification levels that range from foundational training to advanced practical application levels, allowing flexibility for professionals to choose badges that support their institutional roles and career trajectories. The initiative also aims to inspire the creation and dissemination of more competency-based team science educational materials by periodically inviting CTSA hubs to submit their training programs.

A pilot study is underway to better understand and evaluate the user experience in applying for the Team Science Fundamentals Digital Badge. The pilot will inform the subsequent Call for Training Programs and associated team science landscape assessment to gauge existing team science infrastructure and interest for additional digital badges. Along the way, the Digital Badge Initiative is being evaluated to assess its impact on the professional identity of Team Science Professionals, the acceptance of badges by employers, and the career outcomes of credentialed individuals, ensuring priority alignment and badge adoption. We will report on the current results from the pilot and evaluation, as well as discuss next steps. The ultimate goal is to enhance the performance of translational teams by creating and standardizing pathways for Team Science Professionals to support effective cross-disciplinary team science and catalyze the process of translation. This comprehensive approach aims to create and sustain a robust Translational Science workforce, addressing critical needs in the field.