Participatory Science as a Regenerative Framework

Science has always been pursued by the curious, and scientists have come together in community to make strides that they could not have achieved on their own.

Participatory science is the exemplar of this outlook, and presents a model for addressing pressing global challenges. Participatory scientific research spans the entire research lifecycle – defining what research to pursue based on community needs, values, and priorities, exploration of methods and hypotheses generated by unique perspective, representative data collection and surfacing of local knowledge, analysis harnessing diverse human insights and intuition, all the way through sharing outcomes, collective sensemaking, and a participatory shaping of future policy.

This session explores how enabling broad, deep engagement in research leads to increased agency, and increased agency leads to support, trust, robustness, and effectiveness in the research enterprise to address global challenges from health, to sustainability, to equitable prosperity and beyond. A rotating panel of experts will work through the following topics:

• What is participatory science, how has it already been successfully applied, and why does it matter?

• How can the public be invited to participate throughout the entire research lifecycle, and why is it beneficial for both researchers and society?

• What is the synergy between participatory research and open science, and how can we scaffold workflows for collective sensemaking?

• Why is agency in science important? What barriers exist to entering the research ecosystem, and how can we lower them?

• How can we create regenerative, sustainable development through participatory research?

• What advancements in research, policy, and resourcing would catalyse participatory science to create regenerative futures?

This session was developed in partnership between Frameshifter and the Association for Advancing Participatory Sciences.