More Than 225 Americans to Deliberate on the Future of U.S. Science in Simultaneous Forums Across Three States

Washington, DC — October 2, 2026 — More than 225 Americans will gather in Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, West Virginia; and Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, October 3, for a national experiment in public deliberation about the future of the American scientific enterprise.

The three American Science@250 Citizen Forums, organized by Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes (CSPO) with partners in each state, will engage members of the public in a full day of informed, facilitated discussion to explore a question usually left to scientists, universities and policymakers: Who should decide what publicly funded science is for and how it should be organized?

Participants will address four central questions:

What research directions should be prioritized? Who should perform publicly funded research? Who should decide what research receives public funding? Who should oversee the scientific enterprise?

The day will conclude by asking participants to bring those discussions together around a larger question: What should the scientific enterprise look like in the future?

The forums are part of American Science@250: Rethink, Reimagine, and Redesign, a national initiative examining what the United States can learn from the history of its scientific institutions and what should change as the country looks toward its next 250 years.

“American science has never been a finished system. The United States has repeatedly changed who conducts research, how it is paid for, and how scientific knowledge is connected to public needs,” said Arthur Daemmrich, director of CSPO. “The 250th anniversary gives us a timely opportunity to ask what should come next. Rather than beginning with a blueprint developed by experts, American Science@250 begins by asking Americans themselves what they expect from the scientific enterprise their taxes, institutions and communities sustain.”

More than 75 participants have been confirmed for each location. Participants were recruited to reflect the demographic diversity of their regions, as well as a range of socioeconomic backgrounds and political perspectives.

A common foundation for informed deliberation

Before arriving at the forums, every participant received a background guide, The Future of America’s Scientific Enterprise, designed to establish a common foundation for discussion rather than tell participants what conclusions to reach.

The guide begins by defining what is meant by the “scientific enterprise” and traces the origins of the current U.S. research system, including World War II and the birth of the postwar system and the founding debates that shaped it.

It then introduces participants to several choices and tensions that will structure the October 3 discussions: who performs research, how research priorities are selected, who should participate in funding decisions, and how accountability, scientific integrity and oversight should operate.

The material also presents participants with possible reforms and competing approaches rather than arguments in favor or against single proposals.

As the guide tells participants: “This forum is about bringing your perspective into that decision.”

Three communities, one deliberative process

Although the forums will take place in very different parts of the country, all three will follow the same deliberative protocol.

Participants will sit in groups six or seven with a trained facilitator. For each major discussion session, they will watch the same informational videos, work through the same discussion prompts and respond to the same questions, both individually and as groups.

The day moves sequentially through decisions that together make up the scientific enterprise: what research should be prioritized; who should do the research; who should decide what receives public funding; and who should oversee the system. Participants will then synthesize their discussions and share their ideas about what the future scientific enterprise should look like.

CSPO researchers will collect individual responses, group responses, and table-observer notes, allowing the project team to examine both patterns that emerge across all three locations and differences among them.

Emily Hostetler, project manager for American Science@250, led a small project team responsible for the design, scheduling and production of the forums and has coordinated the partnerships that make the three-site effort possible.

“It takes a surprising amount of work to make three rooms nearly 2,500 miles apart function as one national deliberative event on the same day, at nearly the same time,” Hostetler said. “Every participant needs to encounter the same core information and questions, every facilitator needs to follow the same protocol, and every response needs to be effectively captured in a form that we can analyze across locations. At the same time, Boston, Charleston (WV), and Phoenix are very different places, and those differences are exactly what we hope to learn from.”

Each participant will receive a $200 gift card in recognition of the time contributed to the discussion, with lunch and refreshments provided.

“This is not an opinion poll, and it is not a town hall,” said Mahmud Farooque, associate director of CSPO and a principal investigator for American Science@250. “We are giving people time to meet, share meals, learn, exchange stories, consider trade-offs, and tell us what they think about the why, who, how, and when of public science so it aligns better with their hopes, dreams, and values and minimizes, when it cannot eliminate, their concerns.”

National questions, strong local roots

Each forum is being conducted with organizations embedded in its community.

At the Museum of Science in Boston, participants will be welcomed by President and CEO Tim Ritchie and Arthur Daemmrich, director of CSPO.

In Charleston, West Virginia House Speaker Roger Hanshaw will help welcome participants, and Marshall University President Brad Smith is also expected to join him at the opening.

Massachusetts and West Virginia bring distinctive histories to the project. MIT engineer, faculty member, dean, and Vice President Vannevar Bush and West Virginia Senator Harley Kilgore advanced competing visions for how the federal government should support and govern science after World War II. Their proposals helped frame the debates that ultimately produced the National Science Foundation and shaped the postwar American scientific enterprise.

At the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, participants will be welcomed by Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Arizona Science Center President and CEO Tammy Stewart.

Arizona represents a newer chapter in the evolution of the American scientific enterprise: Arizona State University has positioned itself as a model of the “New American University,” linking research excellence, broad access, and public impact, while metropolitan Phoenix has emerged as a major center of the next generation of U.S. innovation through semiconductor manufacturing and research investments associated with the CHIPS and Science Act.

The three locations provide contrasting scientific, economic, geographic and institutional settings. Rather than trying to eliminate those differences, American Science@250 is designed to investigate where perspectives vary and where people encountering the same information and questions identify common priorities.

From citizen deliberation to a national science-policy conversation

The October forums are one stage of a larger research and engagement process.

Earlier phases included historical and policy research, expert engagement, and smaller public dialogues in Boston, Phoenix, and West Virginia. Those conversations helped identify public values and concerns and informed the development of the background materials, discussion questions, and deliberative design being used on October 3.

After the forums, researchers will collate and analyze the individual responses, group responses, and observer notes from all three sites.

Preliminary findings will begin to be shared at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December, followed by a two-day workshop in Washington, D.C., in January 2027, with expert stakeholders. Feedback from that process will inform final reports, briefings, and other materials to be shared with organizations and decision-makers engaged in efforts to restore, reform, or more fundamentally redesign the American scientific enterprise.

The forums are not intended as a referendum on a predetermined policy proposal. Instead, they are designed to introduce systematically gathered evidence about informed public values into discussions that are more commonly conducted among government, scientific institutions, universities, industry and advocacy organizations.

About American Science@250

American Science@250: Rethink, Reimagine, and Redesign is an initiative of Arizona State University’s Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes. The project examines the future purposes, priorities, and governance of the U.S. scientific enterprise through historical research, expert and stakeholder engagement, and public deliberation. It draws on CSPO’s longstanding work in participatory technology assessment, anticipatory governance, and public-value approaches to science and technology policy.

Project information:
https://cspo.org/research/america250/

Boston forum:
https://www.mos.org/events/

Charleston forum:
https://www.wvstep.org/a250

Phoenix forum:
https://www.azscience.org/visit/events/

MEDIA CONTACT
Mahmud Farooque
Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes
Arizona State University
[email protected]
202.446.0397