Funding Opportunities

ASTC’s Community Science Initiative provides direct support through opportunities that provide funding alongside professional development, networking, and strategic support for community science initiatives. Designed to support and scale a diversity of community science projects at different stages of development, each award has unique goals, requirements, and timelines. Before further exploring our offered opportunities, please review ASTC’s Community Science Framework and its five Approaches to community science: Dialogue & Deliberation, Community-driven Citizen Science, Open Innovation, Civic Engagement and Policy Making, and Participatory Research. These approaches are what distinctly differentiate community science (where you are actively working to further community priorities) and more general education and learning initiatives (where you may be working in partnership with a community but not necessarily toward specific shared goals). 

Our current opportunities are:

• ASTC-sponsored Thriving Earth Exchange Community Science Fellowships: A 12-month fellowship–with multiple cohorts each year–that supports individual professionals at ASTC member institutions who manage (or are interested in fostering) community science projects. Fellows will receive personalized strategic support and foundational training in planning and managing community science efforts. Individuals best suited to apply will have an existing community partner and a topic to address collaboratively. Up to $5,000 in funding is available to fellows after completing the initial virtual training to support a wide range of project needs. Learn more and apply here.
  • • If you answer “yes” to all of the following questions, the ASTC-sponsored Thriving Earth Exchange Community Science Fellowships may be for you:
      • • Are you seeking a professional development opportunity for an individual employed at an ASTC membership institution?
        • Does this individual seek to build competencies in community science?
        • Does this individual have both an established relationship with a community partner and a topic they’d like to address?

These opportunities are open to ASTC science center and museum members as well as allied members in North America, South America, and the Caribbean. All programming and materials will be conducted in English and in Western Hemisphere time zones.