Transformative Citizen Science for Sustainability

Citizen science has become an essential approach to address urgent sustainability challenges. It is critical that science and society work together. Science becomes more relevant as scientists and citizens upscale data collection, co-create knowledge on issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity etc. to gain in-depth insight and overview on the topic, while simultaneously mobilising citizen and politicians to take action. Transformative citizen science goes a step further. It is not just about knowing and 'doing things better' but also about 'doing better things' all together. Being concerned about well-being & sustainability issues, citizens, NGOs and/or policy makers connect with scientists to engage in a citizen science project so as to create broader awareness, behavioural, community and/or policy change. For example:

• Due to climate change droughts, Ghanian farmers could not produce as expected. Credit providers accused them of cheating, but the farmers could not provide evidence of their farm practices and the local effects of droughts. Though many of them were illiterate, they managed to interest a committed scientist to design a photo-farm monitoring device for and with them. With this evidence, they could start a dialogue with credit- and input suppliers so as to be more trustful and lenient.

• The 'Big data against childhood Obesity' project massively increased data collection. Reaching out to over twenty thousand children from different countries. Together, they contributed over 107.000 pictures and other data on the impact of lifestyle and living conditions on health and well-being. It led to more awareness of schools on promotion of healthy behaviours across different income groups, and sparked changes on public health policy.

In this course you will explore several such successful examples of citizen science, including projects on: water and air quality, diseases, climate change, the loss of green spaces and biodiversity. Well-designed citizen science enables citizens to collect, interpret and share data. Transformative citizen science goes a step further. It allows citizens to contribute to change on issues that matter to them. It is a process that challenges scientists and policy makers’ assumptions and values, to co-create innovative solutions that can tackle sustainability challenges.

The course has a theoretical and practical part. You learn the basic characteristics of different types of Citizen Science. For each type of citizen science, you learn to recognise and selectively apply strategic project decisions for scientific credibility but also societal involvement and impact. You identify requirements and methods for data monitoring, storing, sharing, analysis, interpretation and finally, you learn how to assess and communicate the citizen science process and outcomes to create the desired impact.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Explain the characteristics of different types of citizen science for sustainability, the goals, attribution of roles, and level of engagement of different stakeholders
• Execute a stakeholder analysis related to an issue-at-stake, propose and justify a type of citizen science project, highlighting its specific value for science and/or society
• Formulate research questions in citizen science, select effective data gathering and storing tools/methods, appropriate data analysis and sharing structure as well as citizen recruitment and activation strategy
• Explain and apply monitoring and evaluation methodologies from a learning perspective, improving project effectiveness and engagement of actors for transformational change
• Explain, apply and critically assess the ethical principles that are and should be taking into account in the design and execution of a citizen science project
• Explain, apply and critically assess communicate strategies with citizen scientists, policy makers and the wider public, so as to create societal impact

Assumed Knowledge:
The level of the course is advanced. The prerequisites are a bachelors degree/undergraduate level in a domain for which the student would like to develop a Citzien Science Project