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FY 16-17: Agency Priority Goal
Invest strategically in public participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics research (PPSR)
Priority Goal
Goal Overview
Problem/Opportunity:
Scientists, mathematicians, and engineers have involved the public in their research efforts to solve challenging problems for centuries in a variety of fields. For example, daily precipitation data collected by volunteers throughout the US have been used to develop more accurate, fine-grained models that improve weather forecasting, agriculture, and disaster risk analyses. Water quality and wildlife monitoring projects allow communities to understand their local environments in systematic ways and allow them to compare their findings with those from other areas. These types of activities have been referred to in a variety of ways. For this Agency Priority Goal, "Public Participation in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Research" (PPSR) is used as an overarching term that includes citizen science, crowdsourcing research, and similar activities.
PPSR has grown significantly in the past decade, in part due to new technological tools that facilitate interactions between scientists and participants. There are a number of economic, societal, and technological trends that are increasing the variety and value of what public participation in research can accomplish. These trends include: the democratization of the tools needed to design and make a variety of items; the Maker Movement; the emergence of online communities with shared interests in projects such as exploration of diverse fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by members of the public; and crowdfunding platforms that allow teams to raise funding for their projects.
New technological tools also have facilitated crowdsourcing research, a process in which open calls are made for voluntary contributions to STEM problem-solving. These calls are typically either to a non-specified group of individuals ("the crowd") or to individuals with specific expertise, thus leveraging the skills and knowledge of many.
Without public participants and their contributions, some STEM research that addresses challenging problems would not be practical or even possible, e.g., projects mandating data collection from many geographical locations or over long periods of time or projects that require expertise for analysis of data as well as large sets of visual or numeric data. PPSR approaches hold promise to continue to address new research questions and contribute to ongoing STEM research. Moreover, citizen science and crowdsourcing research provide opportunities for the broadest possible participation in learning how STEM research is done and in engaging in it directly. Participants include individuals from urban, suburban and rural communities; diverse economic, geographic, racial, ethnic, gender, and linguistic groups; and individuals with a range of abilities and disabilities.
The motivation for PPSR may be derived from community concerns or may be researcher-led. The level of public involvement varies from being contributory (e.g., collecting and recording data) to collaborative (e.g., analyzing samples and discussing results) to co-created (in which the public might be involved in all phases of the scientific process from defining the question for investigation, to experimenting, analyzing, and reporting). Thus, people with various interests and abilities are often able to participate and contribute productively.
With the opportunity to reach more people and therefore collect and analyze data sets more extensively than possible through the efforts of scientists alone, PPSR may go beyond simply enhancing our ability to do traditional STEM research better. Citizen science and crowdsourcing science enable us to pursue entirely new avenues of research and development that can only be achieved through public-scientist collaborations. The different perspectives and habits of mind that public participants can bring to bear on the interpretation of data may also open new avenues of research and development.
Over the past decade, NSF has funded hundreds of STEM research projects that rely on PPSR across a diverse array of fields. The scope of PPSR is broad and encompasses geosciences and biological sciences, technology and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, education, computer and information sciences, and physical sciences. These projects collectively have created a strong foundation for future PPSR activities and have identified areas for potential improvement and expansion. The next phase of NSF investments will expand beyond project-by-project approaches to explore underlying issues and areas for innovation. In particular, this next phase could help identify: new research challenges that might be addressed using PPSR; new PPSR-enabling technology; social aspects of working with the public; effective PPSR program design; learning experience facilitated by PPSR; ways in which PPSR can broaden participation in STEM; and a myriad of data-related issues, including data quality and collection, data management, visualization, and data ownership models. This phase of investments should also prompt the broader community to tackle long-standing but unresolved STEM challenges and to open doors to new STEM research areas.
To achieve this Agency Priority Goal NSF will use three specific mechanisms to fund proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches: Research Coordination Networks (RCNs), EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGERs), and supplements to existing awards. Research Coordination Networks support communication and coordination across disciplinary, organizational, institutional, and geographic boundaries, thus facilitating ongoing activities above the project level. EAGERs are designed as "high risk-high payoff" awards. These types of awards will likely push our collective understandings of how PPSR is leveraged to support scientific discovery and the public's engagement with research. Supplements to existing awards provide opportunities to (1) include PPSR approaches in projects that are appropriate for PPSR but haven't already incorporated PPSR approaches and (2) for other projects to deepen their use of PPSR approaches.
This Agency Priority Goal also takes advantage of the Executive Branch's momentum in this area. For example, the White House honored Citizen Science Champions of Change and included citizen science projects and opportunities in its recent science fair. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) rolled out a new toolkit for federal-sponsored PPSR projects on September 30, 2015 and issued a memo with actions for federal agencies with respect to PPSR. Among the public communities that NSF serves, this Agency Priority Goal is relevant and timely. It addresses the need for investments in PPSR as articulated in recent journals, such as Science; at conferences, such as the citizen science pre-conference workshop at AAAS in 2015; and by practitioner organizations, such as the Citizen Science Association.
Relationship to agency strategic goals and objectives
PPSR projects have both scientific value and educational value. Thus, PPSR supports NSF Strategic Goal 1, Objective 1 ("Invest in fundamental research to ensure significant continuing advances across science, engineering, and education") and NSF Strategic Goal 2, Objective 2 ("Build the capacity of the Nation to address societal challenges using a suite of formal, informal and broadly available STEM educational mechanisms").
Key barriers and challenges to its achievement
1. Coordinate cross-program and cross-directorate investments that enhance both an understanding of and ability to implement PPSR approaches.
2. Manage expectations among colleagues across the federal government and public sphere as PPSR is further developed to support their daily work.
External factors
OSTP and the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing (FCPCSC) have directly contributed to development of this Agency Priority Goal. In addition, activities by federal agencies and offices related to open innovation, citizen science, and crowdsourcing research will inform the state of the field with respect to challenges and opportunities in PPSR.
Strategies
Strategies
NSF will build capacity in the nation via mechanisms of funding proposals that explicitly include PPSR approaches, thereby expanding and deepening the engagement of the public in STEM research.
Progress Update
FY 2016 Q4
NSF has achieved two of its three FY 2016 Q4 targets and is making good progress on the one delayed target. With regards to the targets achieved, NSF is currently funding twenty-six EAGERs (exceeding the goal of five) and five supplements (meeting the goal of five). The target to issue a specific call for Research Coordination Networks (RCN) in FY 2016 Q3 is in the process of being updated with plans for a FY 2017 Q1 release. In addition, the milestone and indicator dates have also been updated maintaining progress towards the FY 2017 Q4 goal of funding at least one RCN. NSF also issued two communications in Q4 in addition to the one scheduled for and achieved in Q3. Specifically, NSF issued 16-119, a Dear Colleague Letter: Support for Engaging Students and the Public in Polar Research, https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16119/nsf16119.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click, and posted a video of the role of PPSR at NSF on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ijSk-QWwjw. In sum, over the course of FY 2016 for the PPSR APG, NSF achieved or exceeded five of its six targets.
FY 2016 Q3
In Q3, two out of three performance targets were achieved. Specifically, NSF conferred and participated with other federal agencies in the Federal Community of Practice for Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing meetings in May and June of 2016. In addition, NSF highlighted PPSR in the following communications: 1) A Dear Colleague Letter: Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing -Public Participation in Engineering Research (NSF 16-059), http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16059/nsf16059.jsp, was published in March 2016 with a submission deadline of June 1, 2016 for FY 2016 funding; and 2) Social media postings about PPSR, including over a dozen tweets from Foundation accounts and five Facebook posts, were issued in Q3. There was a delay in meeting the final target of the quarter to issue a specific call for a Research Coordination Network (RCN) which was due to planning of the convenings, complications in the preparation of a DCL covering the PPSR RCN, and changes in the leadership of the PPSR Goal Team. It is anticipated that these delays will not impact the goal of funding an RCN or similar network by FY 2017 Q4.
FY 2016 Q2
In Q2, NSF achieved its milestone to confer with representatives of other federal agencies to inform its strategic thinking on PPSR. These PPSR-related meetings include the OSTP-led effort to develop a catalog of citizen science and crowdsourcing projects and the Federal Community of Practice for Crowdsourcing and Citizen Science. NSF also issued 16-059, a Dear Colleague Letter: Citizen Science and Crowdsourcing - Public Participation in Engineering Research that calls for EAGERs and supplements related to PPSR. Goal leaders continued outreach meetings at the directorate and program levels across NSF.
FY 2016 Q1
There were no targets for this APG identified for the first quarter of FY 2016. Good progress is being made towards the upcoming performance targets. Specifically, a core implementation team coordinated communication about PPSR activities, which included both NSF and other organizations in the federal government. NSF issued 16-031, a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL): Leveraging GLOBE to Increase Student Engagement and Diversity, which solicits EAGERs and supplements that include PPSR.
Next Steps
In the first quarter of FY 2017, NSF will continue to work towards issuing one specific call for Research Coordination Networks.
Success will be indicated by achieving milestones and by meeting target metrics. These milestones and metrics are:
- NSF will fund at least two convenings that include current or possible stakeholders external to the federal government to identify trends, opportunities, and gaps in PPSR. These convenings will inform how NSF targets funding opportunities towards scientific needs and public audiences. Milestones: FY16 Q3 & FY17 Q2.
- NSF will confer with other federal agencies at least three different times in order to inform and coordinate efforts related to PPSR. Milestones: FY16 Q2; FY16 Q3; FY17 Q3.
- NSF will issue one specific call for Research Coordination Network (RCNs). Milestone: FY16 Q3. Indicator: At least one RCN is funded in FY17 Q4.
- NSF will solicit EAGERs that include PPSR. Indicator: NSF funds at least five EAGERs that include PPSR in both FY16 Q4 and FY17 Q4.
- NSF will solicit supplements that include PPSR. Indicator: NSF funds at least five supplements that include PPSR in both FY16 Q4 and FY17 Q4.
- NSF will issue at least two communications highlighting PPSR and related funding opportunities. Indicators: FY16 Q3; FY17 Q2.
This Priority Goal is most appropriately measured by milestones, which are scheduled events signifying the completion of a major deliverable or a phase of work. Progress on this Priority Goal can be seen by clicking on the Next Steps tab.
Contributing Programs & Other Factors
All directorates across NSF. We will actively coordinate and share progress on PPSR with other federal agencies and offices, including OSTP, through the Federal Community of Practice related to citizen science and crowdsourcing.
No Data Available
