ASTC’s Community Science Framework can help science engagement practitioners and leaders better understand the diverse community science models and approaches currently in use. By developing a framework—rooted in attributes and outcomes—and documenting exemplary models, we hope to provide concrete strategies science and technology centers can use to build knowledge, skills, and other capacities as they adopt and adapt community science to local contexts. We also hope the framework provides overarching guidance on what can be funded, evaluated, replicated, and scaled.
Attributes and Outcomes in Community Science
Our framework describes a series of attributes and outcomes often present in community science work informed by a review of current literature, as well as existing models, approaches, and toolkits. ASTC’s community science team refined these principles through interviews and workshops with science engagement professionals who supplied further examples of community science work in action.
Please note that while community science efforts must center community priorities, they do not necessarily need to exhibit all of the attributes and outcomes contained in ASTC’s Community Science Framework.
To view the information, slide the toggle.
Community science attributes center doing respectful work with communities and pursuing authentic, equitable partnerships. Each attribute requires ongoing evaluation and reflection to ensure growth over time. The five attributes identified in this framework are: Centers Community Priorities, Respects Community Strengths, Shares Leadership, Equity-Focused, and Aims for Action. Read short descriptions of each attribute below.
Centers Community Priorities
Community science starts with listening to communities and understanding and centering their priorities. Communities should be centrally involved in shaping research goals and questions from the outset to ensure the rest of the project builds on this crucially important foundation.
Respects Community Strengths
Community science is driven by deep, meaningful, and respectful inclusion of community insights. Centering and honoring this knowledge helps ensure that all aspects of the community science project meet community goals and create sustainable, positive impacts.
Shares Leadership
Driven by community priorities and co-created with partners, community science activities benefit from sharing leadership with communities throughout the project and co-owning the process and results. Shared leadership is shared decision-making power. Co-ownership involves physical ownership of products such as data collections, analyses, results, and communications of results.
Equity-Focused
Successful community science work focuses on building equitable relationships and advancing equitable outcomes. This requires a focus on inclusion throughout the research project, such as co-creation, co-leadership and co-ownership, capacity-building, and creating respectful spaces, processes, and relationships to center community priorities.
Aims for Action
Community science is about working with communities to engage science and technology in locally relevant and topical problem solving to address community priorities, values, and aspirations. In almost all cases, community science will involve creating and enacting innovative solutions to scientific and societal questions and problems.
Community science outcomes are informed by a program’s design. ASTC’s community science framework can be used to advance a commitment toward deeper, mutually beneficial, and sustainable partnerships with communities. The seven outcomes identified are: Strong Community Partnerships, Increased Science Agency, Impactful Scientific Research, Ethical Decision-Making, Inspiration for New Science, Capacity for Civic Engagement, and Sustainable Solutions for Society. Read short descriptions of each outcome below.
Strong Community Partnerships
Community science projects should be designed to sustain and develop mutual trust between partners by generating evidence that partners do in fact “walk the talk” in working toward shared visions and goals. The trust and relationships cultivated through community science efforts should lay the foundation for long-term partnerships between community members and partnering organizations.
Increased Science Agency
Engaging in community science expands opportunities to do science that leads to tangible and relevant results. It also has potential to expand scientific literacy and self-efficacy as well as conceptions of who can be a scientist. Community partners can gain scientific agency in a particular area through greater research competency and technical understanding, and the application of this knowledge.
Impactful Scientific Research
Community science can advance scientific research and practices and improve research quality by strengthening external validity and overall rigor by grounding science in real-life contexts. Community science can also improve data quality by increasing participation rates in studies.
Ethical Decision-Making
Community science incorporates diverse perspectives and grounds research in broader contexts of the social, cultural, and ethical implications of an issue, possible solutions, and courses of action. By considering the moral and ethical implications of research use and impacts on communities—and by engaging community members in identifying the best ways to share findings—community science ensures awareness of potential implications of technological advancements and developments.
Inspiration for New Science
Community science can inform and inspire advances in scientific methods, processes, and questions beyond the work of a particular project. Findings and methods can be adapted, tested, and applied in other contexts, and new questions can inspire future research.
Capacity for Civic Engagement
Community science supports communities in producing greater capacity for deep engagement across science and societal issues with public agencies, governing bodies, research institutions, and other science and policy-making institutions. Community science collaborations can influence science and policy-making institutions to better consider diverse community partners and democratize approaches and structures.
Sustainable Solutions for Society
By centering research in communities, community science can be particularly effective in generating and implementing sustainable solutions that improve community well-being. A community science approach means generating innovative and community-relevant ideas that yield new, sustainable solutions that improve community well-being.