People carry a March for Science banner and signs as they pass the Environmental Protection Agency during the March For Science in Washington in April.

They got hundreds of thousands to rally. Where does the March for Science go from here?

WASHINGTON — The hundreds of thousands of people who rallied on the National Mall and in cities worldwide for the March for Science in April came to be noticed. It was a march meant to demonstrate enthusiasm and political clout, and by those measures, organizers believe they succeeded.

But as two dozen of them met in New York the following month for a debrief, they faced an obvious reality: A grass-roots organization that was quickly formed to plan a singular event was not, at least immediately, equipped for far-reaching and long-term science advocacy.