Awarding Engagement: The impact of scientific societies’ awards recognizing work at the intersections of science and society

One of the many ways that scientific societies and associations aim to support and encourage public and civic engagement among their membership is by conferring awards to those who excel in these areas. This report describes research designed to better understand this class of awards (referred to throughout this report as “engagement awards,” though the awards themselves are often described as recognizing a variety of activities, including science communication, advocacy, engagement, outreach, public service, and community- or publicly-engaged research). Specifically, we explore the kinds of activities that these awards recognize; who tends to receive them; how the awards impact recipients, their disciplines, and their institutions; and opportunities for societies to increase the positive impact these awards make in the future. Overall, we find that there are many ways in which societies’ existing awards are effectively supporting and encouraging engagement, for example by boosting recipients’ confidence, visibility, and credibility, benefiting them on both personal and professional levels. This report also describes considerations for further increasing the impact that engagement awards might have for their recipients, science societies and associations, and as levers for encouraging more widespread and effective civic and public engagement throughout the research enterprise.