Empowering citizen science initiatives: Resources, funding, and proposals

1. Successful institutional promotion of resources and infrastructure to support citizen science

This module offers illustrations of CS projects within RPOs that bolster citizen science on an institutional level, including aspects such as funding avenues and organizational structures. It also introduces the concept of CS Hubs or CS-ICPs (Institutional Contact Points). Furthermore, it acquaints learners with the EU-citizen.science platform, serving as an online hub for community-driven knowledge exchange, tools, training, and resources related to CS.

Module description:

What?	How?	Why?
Introduction to the notion of CS-ICPs	Different areas of CS are presented, with special attention to how CS-ICPs may help researchers in relation to CS projects	Explaining to the learners why CS-ICPs may be useful for various CS projects
Example of successful integration of CS-ICPs in RPOs	The story of A Healthier Southern Denmark and how it has enabled citizens to take part in making decisions about the prioritisation of research funding	Demonstration of what can be achieved if the CS-ICP (CS Knowledge Center at the University of Southern Denmark) supports citizen science initiatives
Example of successful integration of CS-ICPs in RPOs	Citizen Science Zürich is developing a set of tools that make it easier for scientists and citizens to engage with CS projects. Special case: Project Wencker (crowdsourcing of transcriptions)	Demonstration of what can be achieved at a CS-ICP in terms of tools development and research support
Expanding on the idea of CS-ICPs	Bridging the stories together and elaborating on key responsibilities of citizen science “single points of contact” (LERU 2016): Recognition of success criteria specifically relevant to citizen science; allocation of funding (or support for the development of funding proposals) for community management, platform development, and other non-research functions characteristic of citizen science; support ethical approval and legal assistance of citizen science projects	Helping learners to organise information about the two examples and enabling them to develop broad thinking about hubs and institutional points of contact (ICPs)
Leveraging resources provided by the EU-citizen.science platform	Showcasing training sessions and MOOCs as an example of non-institutional support	Providing learners with insights from existing resources and infrastructures such as the EU-citizen.science platform

Slide (available in slide deck)