Citizen Science Challenges

Possible solutions: Promoting an accessible and ethical use of new technology and tools, paying special attention to the possibilities that mobile phones and artificial intelligence can bring to the compilation and accessibility of data gathering for participants.

Challenges

Possible solutions: Consolidation of learning spaces for communities and participants, especially between different countries and cultures. Promotion of innovative hybridized research methods and tools.

There is a need to find innovative methods and tools that keep citizen science efforts efficient and coordinated when dealing with unusual circumstances or contexts, always keeping inclusivity and accessibility on the forefront.

Possible solutions: Encouraging the involvement of different population strata in citizen science, as well as developing democratization of scientific practices with digital tools that target the evolving interests of communities.

There is a need to widen citizen science’s impact outside of academia practices, allowing new projects to strengthen the democratization of science. Participants outside of academia should be able to easily take leadership of projects between their interests, increasing relevance of first-hand knowledge of different communities.

The rapid progress in data science and the advances of artificial intelligence has brought up concerns that tasks and data compilation performed by participants may become replaced by algorithms, impacting their participation in citizen science projects.

Impact

Participation

Funding

Project Management & Organization

Research

Technology

Possible solutions: Foment the presence of citizen science inside the scientific system by upholding a strong engagement with the scientific community and funders, as well as displaying the diverse representation of different communities and their concerns and knowledge it offers. .

Citizen science is not consolidated in most national research programmes, which makes securing public funding a challenge, limiting the advancement of citizen science projects and practices and impacting the quality of the data.

Possible solutions: Analyze evolving benefits and needs of citizen science with a community approach, as well as promoting projects focused on new areas of interest.

Possible solutions: Adherence to EU funding programmes like Horizon Europe. Ensure funding by implementing limited, topic specific calls in a protected space.

Increased demand of proof of impact in different countries, displaying how citizen science has improved scientific areas such as standard research practices, better representative data, promotion of democratic values and motivation in science.

The rapidly evolving social and theological circumstances might decrease different communities’ motivation to participate in citizen science