Welcome to the course resource "Supporting Sustainable Institutional Changes to Promote Citizen Science". This is a free course resource for Research Performing Organisation (RPO) staff, particularly training providers, though individual modules may also be interesting and relevant to many other audiences. 

This free course resource was designed to facilitate the adoption of citizen science within RPOs, focusing on four key areas: 

  • Research & Methodology
  • Education & Awareness
  • Support Infrastructure & Resources
  • Policy & Assessment

In addition to these four sections, a Train-the-Trainer section enables you to run your own citizen science-related training courses for institutional staff based on the four key topic areas in this course resource.

It has a modular structure where, within each of the above four areas, there are two modules, each consisting of two sessions plus an interactive session. The modular structure allows learners to choose modules relevant to them - it is not necessary to complete all modules. Each topic area has been designed to last about 2 hours, thus this whole course could be completed in 8 hours. 

However, links to additional resources are provided, and if learners decide to spend more time on this material and the interactive sessions, working with their own project ideas, they may need more time. On the other hand, learners are welcome to just pick out one topic area or one module, thus spending less time engaging with this course.

The modular approach was validated through training sessions held at five different RPOs during 2023. These experiences confirmed the training programs’ adaptability to different institutional needs by selecting appropriate training modules. Based on the lessons learned, we simplified the training programs presented in this course resource and included more fully developed interactive sessions. Due to their modularity, the training programs are versatile, having been developed for both online and onsite delivery.

The intended audiences for this course resource include: 

  • Training providers for RPOs
  • Researchers at all career stages, including researchers who are already running citizen science projects 
  • Research-support staff and other administrative staff groups in research performing organisations (RPOs) or non-governmental organisations (NGOs) 
  • Managers in RPOs or NGOs 
  • Graduate students
  • Volunteer managers and facilitators 
However, many others may find particular aspects or modules of this course interesting, and we encourage everyone to browse the content and engage with it. Intended audiences for modules within each area are specified on the Welcome and Introduction pages under each topic area.

This online course resource was created by Aarhus University as part of the EU-funded TIME4CS project: "Supporting sustainable institutional changes to promote citizen science in science and technology".

In addition to this course resource, a series of 10 webinars has been conducted to complement the topic area modules. These webinars serve as an additional resource, reinforcing the concepts and practices outlined in the TIME4CS course resource. All webinar recordings and associated slides are accessible on the TIME4CS website and here on EU-citizen.science (under Training resources) providing further learning opportunities and support for those engaging with the training programs.


Last modified: Friday, 12 January 2024, 10:32 AM