Civic Science Funding Index
The Civic Science Funding Index (CSF-Index) is an evolving experimental mapping project designed to track the global ecosystem of entities that have historically supported or are currently supporting civic science activities. These activities include public engagement, science communication, science outreach, informal science education, and related scholarship and practice, funded through sponsorships, grants, and various types of awards.
The information presented is derived from publicly available sources, including organization websites and databases, in addition to data shared directly by funders. This ongoing mapping effort began in 2022 and led to the first publication titled “Distribution of the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning Awards (AISL) between 2006-21” on BioRxiv which was followed up with the release of the dashboard and our ongoing reporting [search “funding” on the terminal search function].
The searchable dashboard is structured into two key sections:
• Blue section: A broad overview of organizations that have provided funding for civic science initiatives.
• Brown section: A live tracker of individual grants awarded by dates, descriptions, geographical areas, funding amounts, recipient organizations, PIs, and any other available information.
Publications from our ongoing mapping:
(1) Muindi, FJ. Mapping the Funding Landscape for Public Engagement with Science. Trends in Cell Biology 2025, 0 (0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcb.2025.04.001.
(2) Muindi, FJ. Visualized: Massachusetts is no. 2 state with highest number of active public engagement with science grants from the NSF-AISL program. The Civic Science Observer.
(3) Muindi, FJ. Visualizing Society for Science’s STEM Action microgrants across the U.S. — Organizations in CA, TX, NY, FL, and MA are among the awardees. The Civic Science Observer.
(4) Houzenga, H. M.; Muindi, FJ. Distribution of the National Science Foundation’s Advancing Informal STEM Learning Awards (AISL) between 2006-21. bioRxiv February 23, 2022, p 2022.02.18.480415.
