The document outlines the communications and outreach strategy used by the EPA's ToxCast program to engage stakeholders on its new high-throughput screening data. Key elements included: conducting webinars and demonstrations before public release; announcing the data's availability through multiple channels; hosting workshops for hands-on training; and incorporating ongoing feedback to improve the online dashboard and data files. Surveys found that stakeholders generally rated the usability and quality of ToxCast data and tools positively and workshops were effective in increasing understanding of them. The strategic, iterative approach supported increasing adoption of the new toxicity screening methods.

1. Science Communications
ToxCast Communications & Outreach Strategy
Presented by:
Monica Linnenbrink
Strategic Communications & Outreach Lead for Chemical Safety Research
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Office of Research and Development
Email: Linnenbrink.Monica@epa.gov
www.epa.gov/research/chemicalscience
1

2. Presentation Overview
•Background
•Approach
•Strategic, targeted & step-by-step outreach
activities
•Feedback & Results

3. Background
•Toxicity Forecaster (ToxCast)
research effort released high-
throughput screening data on 1,800
chemicals in December 2013.
Chemicals were screened in over 700
high-throughput screening assays.
•As part of EPA’s commitment to
transparency, all data is accessible
through the Chemical Safety for
Sustainability Dashboard (iCSS).
•EPA recognized communications and
outreach was needed to aid with the
acceptance and trust of new scientific
data.

4. Communications and Outreach Approach
• Communicating with stakeholders
multiple times, using strategically
selected and step-by-step outreach
activities
• Helping stakeholders become
comfortable with the new data by
providing demonstrations and tutorials
• Requesting feedback from stakeholders
and continually incorporating the
feedback, letting stakeholders know
when feedback is incorporated
• Targeting scientific community and
stakeholders who could use data
including academia, industry, other US
Federal Agencies, State Environmental
Agencies, International Gov’t Agencies,
NGOs such as Environmental Defense
Fund, etc 4

5. Strategic, Step-by-Step Communications
• Webinars and demonstrations for key stakeholders prior to public
data release.
• Public announcement of data release with news release, blogs,
social media, etc.
• Two workshops where EPA scientists gave stakeholders an
overview of new data and to provided hands-on demonstrations
• As requested, hosted webinars tailored to their needs
• Sponsored exhibit booths at scientific conferences to provide
hands-on demonstrations
• Hosted Data Summit for stakeholders to present their ideas for
applications of the new data
• Throughout, request stakeholder feedback to make improvements
5

6. Webinars & Demos
Discussions with key stakeholders prior to releasing the
data and targeted webinars after release
6
Office of Management and Budget Dashboard Briefing 12/20/2013 7
iCSS Dashboard and ToxCast Data Overview (Communities of Practice) 12/12/2013 78
Overview of ToxCast Data and Dashboard Before Public Release
(partners with signed research agreement)
9/19/2013 64
FDA ToxCast Data and Dashboard Overview 9/11/2013 27
Presentations and discussions with EPA Program Offices such as Office
of Water and EPA’s Endocrine Disruption Screening Program
Ongoing Targeted
Presentations and discussions with the Environmental Defense Fund,
American Chemistry Council (& its members), Humane Society, PETA,
LOREAL
Ongoing
Targeted
Presentations and discussions with Health Canada, California EPA Ongoing Targeted

7. Announce the public release of data
December 2013: Released
new data and iCSS
Dashboard publicly
• Announced through news
releases, blogs, social media,
fact sheets, external web
pages, webinars, at scientific
conferences
• Workshop registration
opened and Data Summit
announced
• Requested stakeholder
feedback via email, through
webinars and continually
encouraged participation in
outreach events
7
Scientific Media Coverage including C&EN. Others BNA,
Greenwire, Chemical Watch, Environmental Leader, Scientific
American, NC NPR

8. StakeholderWorkshops
•Workshop #1 held January
2014 in ResearchTriangle
Park, NC
•Workshop #2 held April 2014
at an FDA facility in
Washington, DC area
•EPA scientists provided
overview of newly released
data and stakeholders
provided feedback
•Stakeholders participated in
one-on-one demos to become
familiar with new data (Genius
bars)
8
27%
66%
7%
Workshop improved
understanding of data/tools and
use of them
Strongly Agree
Agree
Undecided
Disagree
Strongly Disagree

9. Workshop Feedback
Feedback for Dashboard
• Better instructions/user guide**
• Improved assay descriptions**
• Ability to filter a group of manually
selected chemicals
• Raw data points (vs. averages)
• Selection buttons on left are confusing**
• Demo videos to show interest in one
chemical and a group of chemicals
• Link on DB to get to raw data
Feedback for Workshop
• Demos were great!
• Less Q/A at the end, as the questions after
each talk was sufficient
• Case study or group exercise would be
nice to go through motions of using DB
• More discussion of:
• How these tools can be used
• Future changes to DB
Stakeholders who analyzed ToxCast Data
used it for:
• Allergenicity of Chemicals
• Inference for Benign Molecular
Design
• +/- control chemicals for NR
activation to compare to their
data
• Use lists for determining possible
Endocrine System disruption
9

10. Data Summit
•Held in Research
Triangle Park
September 29-30, 2013
•Stakeholders
presented their ideas
for using and analyzing
data through keynote
and poster
presentations
•Over 300 stakeholders
participated (in-person
and via webinar)
EPA’s Assistant Administrator explains his vision for
using new data to prioritize chemicals for potential
endocrine disruption

11. Data Summit Feedback
•Stakeholder (Suggestions for Improvement)
• ToxCast Data: Define acronyms, assay descriptions,
downloads by use, online examples, provide LEL
and EMAX summaries, plain language, explanation
of how data was processed, provide dates of
release, metadata,
• iCSS Dashboard: improved filtering, listen to
stakeholders, export feature is tricky, add assay
descriptions, training video

12. Responding to Feedback
•Training video with case studies
now available (more being
developed)
•New chemical data files recently
released with assay descriptions,
descriptions of how data is
processed (continuing to work
to improve)
•Added break-out groups to Data
Summit about database updates
•More stakeholder workshops
planned for 2015

13. Results: Stakeholder Surveys
Very Good
12.12%
Good
60.61%
Barely
Acceptable
21.21%
Poor
6.06%
I WOULD RATE THE USABILITY OF THE ICSS
DASHBOARD AS:

14. Results: Stakeholder Surveys
Very Good
12.90%
Good
58.06%
Barely Acceptable
29.03%
I WOULD RATE THE QUALITY OF THE DATA
FOR SUBSEQUENT ANALYSIS AS:

15. Results:ToxCast Usage Data

16. Results: iCSS Dashboard Usage

17. Thank-you!
17

18. Supplemental Slides if needed
18

19. Highlighted Conferences & Events Featuring CSS
• SOT FutureTox II (January 2014): EPA scientist Co-chair of organizing committee and featured
presentations and posters about CSS research.
• Society ofToxicology (March 2014): Featured presentations and posters about CSS research. EPA booth
and demonstrations of CSS databases, models and tools.
• ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s Annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference (June
2014): CSS NPD Co-chair of organizing committee, CSS Deputy part of organizing committee, featured
presentations and posters about CSS research. EPA booth promoting research.
• International Society for Exposure Science (October 2013 and 2014 planned): Organizing
committee chair is an EPA/NERL Division Director.Will feature presentations and posters about CSS research.
EPA booth and demonstrations of database, models and tools.
• Society for EnvironmentalToxicology and Chemistry Conference (November 2013 and 2014
planned): Feature presentations and posters about CSS research. EPA booth and demonstrations of CSS
databases, models and tools.
• ACC briefings about AOP Wiki (September 2013) and iCSS Dashboard (July 2013): Briefed
American Chemistry Council about AOPWiki and iCSS Dashboard.
19

20. 51%
3%
6%
6%
20%
3%
5%
6%
ToxCast Stakeholder Workshop January 14 2014
EPA ORD
EPA Program Office/Region
Academia
Federal Government, non-EPA
Industry
International Government
Media
NGO
State Government
Not ProvidedTOTAL: 85
ToxCast Stakeholder Participation

21. 13%
18%
4%
23%
24%
1%
1%
7%
5%
4%
ToxCast Stakeholder April Workshop EPA ORD
EPA Program Office/Region
Academia
Federal Government, non-EPA
Industry
International Government
Media
NGO
State Government
Not ProvidedTOTAL:277
ToxCast Stakeholder Workshop Participation

22. Data Summit
Academia
10% Consultant/Contractor
10%
EPA Program Office
7%
EPA Researchers
28%Other US
Federal Gov't
13%
Industry
14%
International
Gov't
4%
Media
1% NGOs
9%
State Environmental
Agency
4%
Data Summit Participants
Academia
Consultant/Contractor
Program Office
EPA Researchers
Other US Federal Gov't
Industry
International Gov't
Media
NGOs
State Environmental Agency
Total: 304

23. Workshop Feedback
60%
13%
27%
ToxCast Data
Very Satisfied
Satisfied
Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Very Dissatisfied
Have not Used
13%
34%
20%
33%
iCSS Dashboard
Very Satisfied
Satisfied
Neither Satisfied or Dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Very Dissatisfied
Have not Used
27%
66%
7%
Workshop improved
understanding of
data/tools and use of
them
Strongly Agree Agree
Undecided Disagree
Strongly Disagree