Transformative community-engaged science: Strengthening relationships between science and society

There is a critical need to strengthen science-society relationships-especially with historically marginalized communities-if we are to better and more equitably manage complicated, intertwined, global challenges at the intersection of environment, health, equity, and well-being. Community-engaged science, which focuses on shared leadership and mutual benefit in scientific partnership with communities, has the potential to transform science, communities, and even society. Despite this promise, however, community-engaged science is not always transformative. Presentations and discussions at the 5th National Academies Science Communication Colloquium demonstrated the importance of creating structures, practices, and a culture of science engagement that prioritizes listening and learning from communities. Based on presentations at the colloquium, research publications, and our own experiences, we share a set of evidence-informed principles that are common to successful community-engaged science across many contexts: respect, humility, listening, reciprocity, mutuality, and reflexivity. We also offer steps the scientific community can take to advance and improve the transformative practice of community-engaged science as part of a productive ecosystem of scientific activities: evolving norms and culture, integrating community science into current systems, building incentives and structures to support community-engaged science, developing a workforce skilled in community engagement, and investing in a coordinated research-to-practice agenda.