The SFA is a collaborative network of member institutions, initiatives, and individuals committed to sharing resources and working with a diverse group of stakeholders to spark curiosity, encourage experimentation, and engage our communities.

We founded the SFA in 2009 to connect the handful of independent science festivals that existed in the United States at the time. Since then, more than 75 festivals across the US and Canada have become SFA members. Instead of paying dues, SFA members volunteer time and resources in support of our shared goals.

Who comes to the Summit? Anyone with an interest in live, in-person public science events.The Summit brings together public science event organizers, evaluators, collaborators, and sponsors.Past meetings have averaged between 100 - 150 attendees. Many attendees are professionals, but for most event production is only one part of their job. Whether you are interested in massive science festivals or intimate science cafes, high-production stage shows or community-based science experiences, you’ll fit right in at the Summit.

We measure the Accelerator’s success by the degree to which each newly launched science festival serves new populations, rallies new collaborators, elevates new leaders, and provides experimental test cases that the broader science festival community can learn from and apply.The first two iterations of the Accelerator were two-year programs that saw the launch of 21 new festivals across the country. In 2018, our third Accelerator expanded to a three-year program, which let us spend time specifically prioritizing issues of diversity and inclusion in public science organizations, programs, and audiences. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted that timeline, but presented unanticipated opportunities to have meaningful community engagement within the Accelerator cohort and beyond.

The Evolving Culture of Science Engagement initiative is an attempt to take a fresh look at how the public connects to science, how science connects to the public, and how it’s all changing. What happens if we view those connections in the broader context of contemporary culture instead of the traditional categories of science communication and informal science learning? What happens if we start with the innovations in practice—and the innovators themselves—rather than with the goals or outcomes of science communication and education? And what if we try to include all the settings, vehicles, audiences, and professional communities of science engagement, to take in the whole landscape in which adult non-scientists encounter science today?

This predecessor to the Science in Vivo project experimented with new types of science learning at existing community events.

The field of informal science learning and communication is comprised of many sectors—after school programs, science center exhibitions and programs, television and film, print and new media, to name just a few. Each of these is understood to make unique contributions, present unique opportunities, and require unique support. Science Live began with the observation that it time to similarly acknowledge the practice of live public science events.

We call joining in like this "situated engagement." If community outreach is about going where the people are, then situated engagement is about taking the next step and doing what the people do. We're experimenting with situated engagement through the Science In Vivo project, and dozens of teams from across the U.S. are taking part.It's been an incredible ride so far, and we're glad you're here to share it with us. We're finding that situated engagement reorients our whole approach to what we do. The Science In Vivo website is built around audio clips of professionals processing this reorientation first hand. The site is full of gems, but to appreciate their real value you will need to slow down and listen.

Science Near Me is a free resource to help you quickly find opportunities to engage in all types of science, technology, engineering, math, (STEM) events, projects, and programs near you, in person and online. Enter your search preferences and Science Near Me will scan our partners’ opportunities and present a list of options for you in seconds. Search by location, topic, audience, and more to find the experience that is right for you.

With SFA Accelerator Advisor and community organizer Daniel Aguirre, we launched a series of listening sessions. Community members including teachers, parents, and students set the agenda based on their own priorities and public science practitioners participated in “listen-only” mode. These sessions were moving and informative, and, most important, a model for community engagement that every organization can bring into its own public science practice.Participants were then guided to initiate a private cross-cultural conversation with a listening partner to whom they are already connected, sharing their own cultural lenses, pushing through discomfort, and practicing active engagement.

This project is a response to the increasingly urgent need for action that addresses the gaps between three domains that should be more interconnected: 1.) neuroscience education, training, and research; 2.)scholarship in the ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of neuroscience research; and 3.) public engagement.

One of the core principles we are testing is whether and how these three domains can work together hand-in-hand towards mutual benefit and with mutual respect. We envision a Center that directly connects established and training neuroscientists with established and training practitioners of public engagement and the arts, and to do so with frameworks, observation, and critique provided by ELSI scholars, along with the full participation of the public. Bringing that reality to fruition requires experimental practice.

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