NSF Dear Colleague Letter: Public Participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Research: Capacity-building, community-building, and direction-setting
In PPSR, members of the public partner with scientists and engineers to solve complex problems through participating in some or all of the formulation of questions and experiments; collection and analysis of data; and interpretation, use, and publication of results. Encompassing citizen science, citizen sensing, crowdsourcing, community science, and related approaches, PPSR also benefits public participants by providing opportunities to learn, addressing questions of concern to the participants and their communities, and contributing to science and engineering.