The Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States responsible with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress. In 2010, the EPA wanted to engage groups of people within the agency to start working collaboratively in the research planning process. Read more about EPA's method for achieving these results: - leveraged IdeaScale to identify 10 priorities to vote on for funding research and labs - saw 26 ideas generated by 319 staff members, with 1595 votes and 173 comments - identified urgent needs related to water and were able to allocate proper funding for research grants as well as research labs

1.
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
CASE STUDY
"
IDEASCALE

2. The Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United
States responsible with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing
regulations based on laws passed by Congress. In 2010, the EPA wanted to engage groups of
people within the agency to start working collaboratively. This included scientists within EPA's
Office of Research and Development, scientists in the R&D group together with staff in EPA
program and regional offices, and the EPA staff with external parties. Although the agency had
many initial ideas about project activities, they were focused primarily on finding a method for
collaboration in the research planning process that would help them engage as many points of
view as possible.
"
Since the EPA began using IdeaScale, the agency has tested the solution’s model of crowdsourced
idea management through several projects and campaigns including a research grant competition,
the International Meeting of Cookstoves, and their most successful campaign, the Water
Research program. The Water Research program was intended to have the EPA staff discuss
potential research priorities related to water by using a multi-voting format and encouraging
comments. During a six month process, the EPA successfully leveraged IdeaScale to identify 10
priorities to vote on for funding research and labs. As a result…
• The EPA saw 26 ideas generated by 319 staff members
• Received 1595 votes and 173 comments
• Used the information to discuss and encourage feedback on water related research concerns
and issues from the public
• Identified urgent needs related to water and were able to allocate proper funding for research
grants as well as research labs.
"
In their ongoing effort to make their research departments more collaborative, the EPA plans on
continuing to use IdeaScale’s crowdsourcing tools in future initiatives. Further, the agency hopes
to leverage the solution to get EPA researchers to interact with outsiders in the future.
"
“The most successful IdeaScale project was for our water research program. We thought this was
successful based on number of people involved, number of votes and number of comments.” Jay
Benforado, Director, National Center for Environmental Innovation at EPA
2IdeaScale Case Studies
Environmental Protection Agency
Research Collaboration at the EPA