Community Science: Advancing Community Priorities Together
Understanding Community Science
With community science, community members collaborate to conduct and leverage scientific research and technological innovation to advance community priorities and benefit from knowledge and advancements of science and engineering, often in collaboration with scientists and science-engagement practitioners.
Our world faces challenges and opportunities at the intersection of science and society from climate change to public health to rapidly developing technologies. Community science encompasses the wide array of approaches developed by groups of people who share a common geography, set of characteristics, interests, and goals to use science and technology as a means to answer questions and construct solutions relevant for their communities.
Explore the Attributes & Outcomes
This framework of community science attributes and outcomes is informed by a review of existing models, approaches, and toolkits aimed at scientists, science engagement professionals, community organizers, practitioners, and researchers. These principles were refined through interviews and workshops with science engagement professionals who supplied further examples of community science work in action.
Community Science in Action
Grassroots data collection efforts and open source tools to help assess environmental impacts
Public Lab
Collecting air quality data to help drive city level climate resiliency
RVAir at Science Museum of Virginia
Diverse partnership empowers local voices to influence climate resiliency planning
Cycles of Resilience from Public Agenda
Community science encompasses a wide array of approaches that communities and their partners use to answer science- and technology-related questions and construct solutions. Download our brief overview to learn more about the diverse models and approaches to community science that are currently in use.
Explore networks you can join to connect with other science engagement professionals who have an interest in community science, including ASTC’s Community of Practice for Community Science.
Our framework for Community Science features a set of attributes and outcomes that are centered around doing respectful work with communities and pursuing authentic, equitable partnerships.
About ASTC and Community Science
ASTC’s Community Science Initiative, including the information and resources contained in this website, is aimed primarily at building capacity for and scaling the practice of community science among science and technology centers and museums, and allied science engagement organizations.
The goal of this website is to help describe a set of broad and inclusive attributes, outcomes, and approaches to community science that can be applicable beyond ASTC members and support community science efforts in many types of organizations, while specifically targeting and contextualizing descriptions, examples, resources, and tools to support efforts within science and technology centers and museums.