Spotlight: meet citizen social scientist Twinkle Jayakumar

Please tell us about the citizen science work you do with the UCL Citizen Science Academy at the Institute for Global Prosperity and what you’re hoping to achieve

I am currently working as a Co-Curator for the Citizen Science Exhibition ‘Citizen Science Now! Research by the Community’ to be held in June, which represents the 10 years of work of the IGP. I have participated in different citizen science projects over the period of 4 years after being trained as a citizen social scientist by the CSA-UCL. My work involves researching various community projects which can be from UCL, different councils, developers like Lendlease and other local organisations. I also help co-design different Citizen Science projects, refine community surveys, walk about with different organisations in areas that I have researched, participate in group discussions and also get invited to give presentations to organisations which consist of academics and non academic community sectors audiences.

I am hoping to continue my work in different Citizen Science projects and use my skills and knowledge that will help in improving the wellbeing of the community. My experience doing community projects and research in different areas over the years can be applied to projects by community organisations/sectors who are interested in citizen science work. 

What is citizen science for you and why do you think it’s important?

Citizen Science for me is different ways to do research within the community by the people from that community, who represent and understand the place they live in.

I think this type of research is important as it helps the locals to be more involved with the issues within their community, and also have an opportunity to highlight them and have a chance to address them to policymakers about their findings by proper university research methodology.

Could you give us an example of a positive change that you’ve seen in your community as a result of citizen science?

Having  a chance to be able to address the issues from the different areas to policymakers and to the people who can help bring the change in the local area, that is one of the positive changes I feel citizen science projects have helped me, hoping that one day working towards that can bring about the positive change needed within the community. 

What further changes would you like to see in terms of representation in research and policy?

I would like to see more community representatives like the citizen social scientist or community organisation in their local areas to be involved in the decision making process that affects their area, who can address the issues affecting them in their everyday life. I would love to see the local council working with community researchers to address the real issues that need attention and bring the change needed.

Do you have any recommendations for podcasts, books or other publications, or films that have inspired you?

I love watching a variety of films, fictional, sci-fi and non-fictional. Hidden Figures is one of my favourite films.