June 8–11, ZK/U Berlin, Germany

Register here by March 29, 2026, end of day

Are you already working with an ecosystem approach and looking for a rigorous space to deepen your strategic practice?

The Ecosystem Academy is designed for teams actively developing or stewarding real-world initiatives who want to strengthen their ability to act within complexity.

What is the Ecosystem Academy?

The Ecosystem Academy is a 4-days learning space built around:

• Practice-tested frameworks and knowledge
• Real constellations and strategic dilemmas
• Structured peer learning and reflection
• Experimentation and collective sensemaking

We work with ecosystems as living constellations of actors, practices, narratives, incentives, and power relations. Together, we explore how ecosystems emerge, evolve amid uncertainty, and how resilience can be intentionally cultivated over time.

The Ecosystem Academy combines conceptual inputs with deep work on live cases, cross-role exchange, and reflection on leadership in complexity. Participants apply frameworks directly to their own ecosystem initiatives throughout the program.

The Ecosystem Academy is topic-agnostic: participants may work on different global or local challenges. What connects them is their role in catalyzing and stewarding multi-actor change – not their issue area.

The entire Learning Journey will consist of an onboarding call, the in-person Academy in Berlin, and a follow-up call.

Learning across roles

The Ecosystem Academy intentionally brings together foundations and their field-based partners within the same learning space.

By working and learning across roles, participants examine strategic assumptions, power dynamics, and alignment from multiple perspectives. This cross-role constellation allows for deeper reflection and more coherent action within the ecosystem.

What will you gain?

The Ecosystem Academy is designed as a space to rethink and strengthen how you work in complex, multi-actor environments.

You will:

• Learn key concepts on ecosystem catalyzation and work with the ecosystem cards
• Strengthen your capabilities for working with ecosystems
• Reflect on your ecosystem’s configuration, dynamics, and places to intervene
• Explore dilemmas, tensions, and power asymmetries
• Identify concrete next strategic steps or experiments
• Learn from peers facing comparable uncertainties

Rather than offering ready-made solutions, the Ecosystem Academy supports deeper understanding, sharper strategic choices, and more effective action in complex environments.

By the end of the Ecosystem Academy, you will have:

• A more nuanced understanding of the ecosystem you are engaging with
• Strengthened alignment within your team
• A clarified strategic direction and next steps for your initiative

The capabilities we strengthen

The Ecosystem Academy supports practitioners in developing and strengthening core capabilities required to engage effectively in multi-actor, evolving environments.

These include:

• Noticing patterns and system dynamics
• Practicing relational and power-aware engagement
• Cultivating role awareness and strategic positioning
• Engaging in collective sensemaking amid ambiguity
• Designing and learning through safe-to-fail experiments
• Acting intentionally within uncertainty

These capabilities are cultivated through structured work on your own case, cross-role exchange, and reflective practice throughout the learning journey.

Why deepen the ecosystem approach?

Many organizations have adopted the language of ecosystems. Yet in practice, important tensions remain:

• What does stewardship look like beyond coordination?
• How do we navigate power asymmetries within ecosystems?
• How can we act strategically without reverting to control?
• How do we cultivate resilience rather than dependency?

The Ecosystem Academy creates space to work with these tensions – not abstractly, but in relation to your own case.

An ecosystem approach shifts the focus from optimizing isolated interventions or single actors to strengthening the relationships, conditions, and coordination patterns that enable systems health. Working in multi-sector environments shaped by uncertainty and transition requires us to embrace emergence, adaptation, and resilience.

Is it for you?

The Ecosystem Academy is designed for teams of 2-3 practitioners actively engaged in developing, stewarding, or supporting ecosystems for systemic change.

It is particularly suited for constellations where teams from foundations and their field-partners are working together on a defined ecosystem case – while remaining open to other practitioner teams.

The Ecosystem Academy assumes prior experience with the ecosystem approach and active engagement in a real-life initiative.

Participants are expected to:

• Bring a real ecosystem case they are currently working on
• Share dilemmas, unfinished work, and emerging questions — not polished success stories
• Commit to the full learning journey (onboarding call, in-person Academy, follow-up call)
• Engage openly in peer exchange and reflection

If you are looking for a basic introduction to systems thinking, complexity, or ecosystem approach, this program is likely not the right fit.

About the cohort

• 8–12 teams: ecosystem constellations represented by two to three practitioners
• An intentionally small and curated group to create depth and trust
• Primarily focused on practitioners from Europe, while open to colleagues from other regions
• Diversity approached with intentionality and transparency, balancing coherence and perspective

Admissions are handled on a rolling basis, with attention to cohort composition and learning quality.

The Learning Journey

Onboarding call

• Surface your ecosystem context and current strategic challenges
• Clarify intentions and expectations
• Prepare your case for focused in-person work

June 8–11 — In-person Academy in Berlin (ZK/U Berlin)

Start: June 8 with a community lunch

End: June 11 around 2 pm

Three working days dedicated to:

• Focused inputs on key frameworks, ecosystem dynamics and resilience
• Structured work on your case, including an ecosystem map
• Peer exchange across roles and contexts
• Reflection on leadership and strategic positioning

Full working days are planned, with breaks included.

Lunch and coffee breaks are provided.

Follow-Up Call

• Reflect on insights and strategic shifts
• Discuss integration into ongoing work
• Share developments, experiments, and open questions
• Exploration of potential next steps as an ongoing Community of Practice

Participation Fees

Full rate

€1,250 per person and €2,500 per team (2–3 participants)

For participants joining from foundations and organizations with professional development budgets.

Discounted rate

€750 per person and €1,500 per team (2–3 participants)

For small organizations or practitioners for whom the full fee would be a barrier.

Bursary

€2,500 per team (up to three participants)

Designed for partner organizations whose participation is supported by a philanthropic institution.

The participation fee includes:

• The full learning journey (onboarding call, in-person Academy, follow-up call)
• Access to all learning materials during and after the program
• Lunch and coffee breaks during the Academy in Berlin

Participants are responsible for:

• Travel to and from Berlin
• Accommodation (estimated around €200 per night for a single or double room during this period)

How to Join

Step 1 – Explore

Review this page carefully, especially the “Is it for you?” section.

You may join an optional pre-call to:

• Clarify the level of conversation and depth of practice
• Align expectations
• Support your decision-making

Step 2 – Enroll

Click “Enroll” and complete the form by March, 29.

Step 3 – Confirmation

You will receive confirmation by early April.

Admissions are rolling and cohort composition is curated with care.

The team behind

The Ecosystem Academy is created and hosted by a collective of practitioners working across systems change, ecosystem development, facilitation, and complexity-informed practice:

iac Berlin
Berlin, Germany

Represented by Darius Polok and Marilou Pelmont-Beguin.

resense36
Berlin, Germany

Represented by Zoya Lukyanova and Ruslan Kildeev.

Sense-Lab
São Paulo, Brazil

Represented by Andreas Ufer and Valentina Mansur.

In case of any questions, please get in touch with:

Darius Polok
Managing Director
darius.polok@iac-berlin.org