Engage the Public in Your Research! Chances and Challenges of Citizen Science

Many studies benefit from the involvement of people without a formal scientific education. These citizen science studies are for example able to provide data on a scale unobtainable without the involvement of the general public and therefore permit to investigate novel research questions. Further, the participating citizen scientists can increase their scientific literacy, get to know scientific methods and thoughts of enquiry and share their experiences with their peers. Conducting and coordinating a citizen science study also presents some challenges, among them a timely and regular communication with the participants of the project, the development of accompanying educational material and establishing methods to obtain a high data quality.

At the end of this workshop, you will

• know the benefits and hopes associated with collaborative research practises
• have obtained some practical tips and insights into navigating challenges related to involving the public in research, and
• have developed a prototype of a citizen science approach for your research area

Requirements

• For this workshop, a basic knowledge about research communication (e.g. from one of our basic courses) is desirable.

HRA’s Project for Research Communication: This workshop is part of a larger research communication project which is funded by the Claussen-Simon-Stiftung. It can be credited to the topics & formats module of the certificate in research communication.