A month ago I submitted this project to the MCSA-PF fellowship call. It is a very competitive call, the chance of success is about 9.6%! I really enjoyed the process of unpacking my idea to the core essence so I consider it a win anyway. (but man I want the fellowship so bad!)
Cultivating scientific curiosity: Digitally-mediated approaches for enhancing engagement and behavioral transformation.
The overall aim of Sci-Curious is to develop a method that cultivates scientific curiosity in
participants, leading to better engagement in and between contributor groups who deal with politically charged scientific questions. This will be achieved through developing a digitally mediated deep canvassing method that incorporates scientific challenges through digital knowledge infrastructures. This method balances a feminist ethic of care with critical accountability. By bridging scientific rigor with transformative societal engagement, this project promises to unlock new pathways for addressing intractable scientific challenges and affecting societal transformation.
Scientifically literate people, remember, were more likely to be polarised in their answers to politically charged scientific questions. But scientifically curious people were not.
Curiosity brought people together in a way that mere facts did not.
– Tim Harford, 2017.
Abstract:
Scientific prejudices and political polarization prevent meaningful participation in politically charged scientific challenges. Science curiosity counteracts politically biased information processing. Sci-Curious will for the first time apply the deep canvassing method to a scientific context, to cultivate scientific curiosity. Through applying this method in local contributor groups who incorporate experience-based expertise, I expect to see an improvement in the quality of participation.
Sci-Curious will first establish and validate a participation curiosity scale tailored to measure the impact of a deep canvassing intervention in individual participants’ curiosity. Secondly, the project will develop and validate a digitally mediated, self-guided deep canvassing method incorporating game design principles. This method will be tested for its ability to enhance engagement with complex scientific issues in two biosphere reserves, in the Turku and Azores archipelagos. The behavioral and perceptual changes induced by the deep canvassing intervention will be assessed both in the individual participants and in the groups they are part of through mixed-methods data collection and analysis in the case study areas.
Finally, Sci-Curious will evaluate the scalability and feasibility of digitally mediated deep canvassing through adapting the method into an online tool, including AI-facilitated delivery modes, for fostering sustained scientific curiosity and community engagement.
By bridging scientific rigor with transformative societal engagement, this project promises to unlock new pathways for addressing intractable scientific challenges and affecting societal transformation. This research-based training fellowship will impact the fellow in
the same way, diversifying her skills and enabling her to pursue her goals of building an impactful career, bridging science and society, academia and practitioners, while balancing a feminist ethic of care with critical accountability.
Objectives, tied to the work packages:
- Establish and validate a participation curiosity scale tailored to measure the impact of deep canvassing interventions in politically charged scientific contexts. (WP1: CURIOSITY)
- Develop and validate a digitally mediated, self-guided deep canvassing method incorporating game design principles for enhancing engagement with complex scientific issues in biosphere reserves. (WP2: DEEP DIGITAL)
- Assess behavioral and perceptual changes induced by the deep canvassing intervention through mixed-methods data collection, analysis and a shared learning community in two biosphere reserves. (WP3: ENGAGE)
- Evaluate the scalability and feasibility of digitally mediated deep canvassing, including AI-facilitated delivery modes, for fostering sustained scientific curiosity and community engagement. (WP4: EXTEND)
Update: The application was not successful, and I found the reviewer’s comments valid. Here’s the proposal (10 pages, 0.6MB).
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