ELI maintains a growing database of participatory science projects, focusing on those that are designed to inform or influence policy and government action. ELI expects that this information will be useful to those planning similar efforts, to policy researchers, and others.
ELI welcomes suggestions for additional database entries, which can be submitted to participatoryscience@eli.org. ELI also welcomes updates or other corrections to the information in this database.
The database is broken down into three subject areas:
For each project, the database provides basic information on its nature, location, host organization, and links to the project website and other information sources. It also indicates whether the project is currently active.
Column I of the database classifies each project in terms of its goals and whether the data it generates is used for policy purposes. Projects are classified as:
- Information: these include projects whose data is intended for use for community awareness and education, as in indicators of environmental conditions, or for research;
- Agency management: these are projects whose data may be used by agencies for management purposes (e.g., where to prioritize government monitoring), but not for regulatory purposes.
- Regulation and enforcement: these projects are intended to provide data that is used by agencies for regulatory purposes, or by agencies and others for enforcement and litigation.