Citizen Science & Open Science – Policy Brief is out!

We’re happy to launch our Policy Brief on Citizen Science and Open Science!

Messages in a nutshell:

Citizen Science (CS) and Open Science (OS) are among the most discussed topics in current research and innovation policy, and are becoming increasingly related. This policy brief aims at informing decision makers who have adopted Citizen Science or Open Science on the synergies between these approaches and the benefits of considering them together.

This document highlights how Citizen Science and Open Science together can address grand challenges, respond to diminishing societal trust in science, contribute to the creation of common goods and shared resources, and facilitate knowledge transfer between science and society to stimulate innovation. The issues of openness, inclusion and empowerment, education and training, funding, infrastructures and reward systems are discussed regarding critical challenges for both approaches. The document concludes by recommending to consider Citizen Science and Open Science jointly, to strengthen synergies by building on existing initiatives, launching targeted actions regarding education and training, and infrastructures.

The argument is developed based on existing initiatives in Europe who link characteristics from both CS and OS. Four case studies are included in the Policy Brief – more can be found below.

This policy brief was developed with contributions from a mixed group of experts from both fields who came together in the ECSA Working Group on Citizen Science and Open Science. In the framework of the Horizon 2020 project ‘Doing It Together Science’ (DITOs) we organized a series of workshops to develop this policy brief as well as have related events, and will now work on the next steps.

We’d like to hear if you find the policy brief useful and in which contexts you are refering to it. A short email would be much appreciated.

Case Study Collection:

Find case studies on projects and initiatives that combine Citizen Science and Open Science:

• Prototyping a new Heathrow Airport: questioning ontological and epistemological framings of research
• Project SOHA: Open Science in Haiti & Francophone Africa Universities
• Project Roadkill: Citizen Science Based on Open Data
• Amsterdam Smart Citizens Lab: Open Community and Co-Design
• STARS4ALL: Open Data and Open Hardware for Creating Awareness on Light Pollution
• Chordoma Foundation: Patient-led Biobank for Cancer Research
• Wikidata: Collaborative Public-Domain Knowledge Graph

• If you think your project fits in here – please get in touch!