OPENER: Scoping out a national cOmmunity of Practice for public ENgagement with Environmental Research

环境研究有能力与人们的日常生活联系起来，激发他们的想象力。2016年：一位NERC科学家绘制的全球气温螺旋式上升的图表在社交媒体上疯传，随后被用于2010年奥运会开幕式，有超过10亿人观看；1230万人观看了BBC的《地球脉动II》节目，使其成为收视率最高的自然节目；超过50万名志愿者为皇家鸟类保护协会的大花园观鸟活动贡献了800万次观测；12000人将他们电脑的空闲时间捐献给ClimatePrediction.net来运行气候模型；500人参与了生物黑客和DIY科学实验。我们的目标是让公众大规模参与到参与性研究实践中，比如公民科学，从而使研究、研究人员和公众受益。我们希望从“参与”仅仅是被动地消费媒体传播的事实，或对单一倡议的一次性贡献，到持续积极和常规地参与环境研究，参与，质疑和辩论。我们的愿景是在研究的各个阶段——从研究设计到解释证据和影响——利用人们的力量和他们对环境科学的参与，以应对主要的环境挑战，共同开展新颖的研究，并按照他们自己的方式参与。我们希望培养一代科学家，他们知道如何利用这些成功的公众参与和公民科学技术，并关注参与的伦理和社会影响以及相关的环境问题。我们希望建立研究承诺和非政府组织联系，使环境知识的成功合作成为可能。ComRes（2017）最近的研究表明，当人们能够将环境研究与自己的生活联系起来时，他们对环境研究的兴趣就会增加。然而，只有少数人了解环境研究的构成或经常参与环境研究，尽管许多人希望听到更多。为了在公众参与环境研究方面创造真正和可持续的变化，OPENER结合了对环境的共同热情和公众对自然世界的好奇心，以及多学科研究人员、从业者、面向公众的组织和社区团体不断扩大的公众参与能力。OPENER将为公众参与环境研究的国家实践社区（CoP）制定范围并建立承诺。我们认为，积极的公众参与和辩论必须：1 .多学科合作，建立伙伴关系；2 .积极利用公民科学和参与性参与方面的现有专业知识；承认人有复杂的身份，往往有矛盾的意见；4. 尊重和重视所有有意义的知识，促进专业知识的多元化；5. 提高研究人员和听众的能力、兴趣和技能；6. 启用承认不同需求、兴趣和可用性的参与途径；7. 促进公众参与科学过程的各个阶段，并与日常生活建立明确的联系。我们共同创建OPENER的团队由国内和世界领先的环境科学（气候，生态，土壤，海洋）；公众参与和公民科学；跨学科社会科学；以及面向公众和会员的组织。我们共同致力于集体学习，并接受确保国家缔约方会议可持续性所需的新思维和新做法。我们将与广泛的利益相关者合作，为公众参与英国的环境研究提供一个综合的愿景、使命、核心价值观和联合活动。

Environmental research has the power to connect with people's everyday lives and spark their imaginations. In 2016: a NERC scientist's graphic illustrating global temperatures spiralling upwards went viral on social media and was then used during the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics, being seen by more than 1 billion people; 12.3 million people watched episodes of BBC's Planet Earth II programme making it the most-watched nature show; over 500,000 volunteers contributed 8 million sightings to the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch; 12,000 people donated the idle time of their computers to ClimatePrediction.net to run climate models; and 500 people were involved in Biohacking and DIY Science experimentation.Our ambition is for large-scale public involvement in participatory research practices, such as citizen science, in order to benefit research, researchers and members of the public. We want to progress from 'engagement' being solely passive consumption of media-channelled facts, or ad hoc one-off contribution to a single initiative, to an ongoing active and routine engagement with environmental research, participating, questioning and debating. Our vision is to leverage the power of the people and their involvement in environmental science at all stages of the research - from research design to explaining the evidence and impact - to address major environmental challenges, co-produce novel research and engage on their own terms. We want to create a generation of researchers who know how to utilise these techniques of successful public engagement and citizen science, and pay attention to the ethical and social implications of participation and the environmental issues in question. We want to establish the research commitment and NGO link that will enable successful co-production of environmental knowledge.Recent research by ComRes (2017) suggests that people's interest in environmental research increases when they are able to make a connection to their own lives. Yet, only a minority understand what constitutes or regularly engage with environmental research, although many want to hear more. In order to create genuine and sustainable change in public engagement with environmental research, OPENER combines the shared enthusiasm for the environment and the public's curiosity for the natural world with the expanding public engagement capacity of multidisciplinary researchers, practitioners, public-facing organisations and community groups. OPENER will scope out and build commitment for a national community of practice (CoP) for public engagement with environmental research. We believe that active public engagement and debate must: 1. be a multidisciplinary and partnership-building endeavour;2. actively build on existing expertise in citizen science and participatory engagement;3. acknowledge people have a complex identities, often with contradictory opinions; 4. respect and value all knowledge as meaningful and promote pluralism in expertise; 5. develop increased capacity, interest and skills of researchers and audiences; 6. enable avenues of engagement that acknowledge different needs, interests and availability; 7. facilitate public involvement in all stages of the scientific process and make explicit links to everyday life.Our Team who co-created OPENER is made up of national- and world-leaders in: environmental science (climate, ecology, soil, marine); public engagement and citizen science; cross-disciplinary social science; and public- and membership-facing organisations. We share a commitment to collective learning and embrace the new ways of thinking and doing required to ensure the sustainability of a national CoP. We will engage with a wide range of stakeholders to deliver an intergrated vision, mission, core values and joint activities for public engagement with environmental research in the UK.