Project Overview:

Embedding Public Engagement with Science at Long Term Ecological Research Sites (PES @ LTERs) is a research and development project funded by the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program. The goal of the project is to understand and embed public engagement with science into two long term ecological research sites in the northeastern US: the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts.

The big-picture vision driving the PES @ LTERs project is to investigate public engagement with science as a potentially transformative force on the cultures, practices, and institutions of science. Because the research programs at Harvard Forest and Hubbard Brook have already established strong foundations in science communication, public engagement, and policy integration, the sites are ideal for pushing these fields forward and addressing important questions such as:

What are scientists’ goals for engagement? What are their attitudes and beliefs about engagement and how might these views change over time with experiences?
What are the impacts of multiple modes of engagement on both stakeholder and scientist participants?
What support mechanisms are needed at the institutional level to overcome barriers to engagement?

The PES @ LTERs project links social science research and program evaluation with the development and implementation of several activities over a three-year period. These activities include: