ASTC’s Community Science Team is excited to launch our Cultivating Community Science Stipend Program. ASTC’s Community Science Initiative defines Community Science as a way of working on issues at the intersection of science and society, which centers community priorities, strengths, and leadership to co-create solutions. Through community science, community members collaborate, often with scientists and science engagement practitioners, to conduct scientific research and leverage technological innovation to advance community priorities and benefit from science and engineering knowledge and advancements.
The Cultivating Community Science Stipend Program was created to fund collaborative projects with long-term visions over 15 months. ASTC’s intent is to support established teams of science center/museum- and community-based partners in using one or more of our five community science approaches to achieve clear, shared objectives that make demonstrable progress on community priorities. ASTC is interested in learning from awardee teams’ projects to capture lessons for others planning, working on, or funding community science projects, including to support the development of evaluation guidance for community science broadly.
We received many excellent proposals and are excited to share the teams participating in our inaugural cohort:
- Cable Natural History Museum and Cable Community Farm will create the Chequamegon Northwoods Food Coalition to address threats to food security and identify local solutions to conflicting agricultural and forest product industries, disconnected farmers, and local impacts of climate change, founded in the collective knowledge, goals, and values of a cohesive network.
- Museum of Life and Science and Working Landscapes will engage youth and the broader Warren County community around the concerns of inequitable food access and the challenges posed by the climate crisis through activities such as soil health monitoring, mapping of the agricultural landscape of Warren County, and intergenerational interviews about the past, present, and future landscape of food and agriculture.
- Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and Anawakalmekak are partnering to center Indigenous youth leadership in community-led conservation and restoration efforts at Ya’anna Village, a 12-acre hub for both students and the wider community to engage in ecosystem restoration, climate mitigation, and the essential process of decolonization.
- Science Museum of Minnesota and the Racial Justice STEAM Collective are exploring the intersections between race and health, engineering, environmental justice, and technology through youth-focused racial justice summits that utilize open innovation to develop new solutions to address community priorities.
We look forward to seeing the awardee teams implement their ambitious projects and learn together while striving to make a positive difference in their communities. For more information on our program and information on future awards, visit the Community Science Initiative website. To learn more about future funding opportunities, join our interest list. If you are interested in building your capacity to engage your community through Community Science, register for one of our virtual Community Science Trainings.
We extend a special thanks to our partners at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation for providing funding for this program.
