This document was prepared to help EPA staff and managers understand key requirements and design considerations for EPA participatory science projects. EPA staff are encouraged to use the content of this document as they design, fund, and manage EPA participatory science projects.

EPA's Policy Guidelines & Checklist for Participatory Science Projects

This document identifies existing policies that may be relevant to participatory science activities within EPA, although each policy identified in the guidelines may not be applicable to every project or activity. Although this document contains internal hyperlinks and is intended only for EPA users, other federal practitioners and the broader science community may find the content helpful. This document will be updated as EPA gains additional experience in using participatory science in our programs.

Policy Guidelines and Checklist for EPA Participatory Science Projects (pdf) (1.2 MB)

Checklist for Conducting a Participatory Science Project at EPA

This Checklist for Conducting a Participatory Science Project at EPA (pdf) is to be used by EPA staff as they develop a participatory science project to identify which requirements may be applicable to their project based on its characteristics. These requirements were identified based on standard practices across federal agencies and specific experience with EPA-funded projects. This checklist features 17 possible requirements that an EPA participatory science project may need to consider. These 17 requirements are bundled into 14 possible elements of a project (left column). Although any given project may not have all of these elements, all projects will feature the mandatory elements at the top of the checklist.

The table below is an except from the Checklist for Conducting a Participatory Science Project at EPA (pdf).