Citizen Science support and training

The UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship aims to encourage you to consider taking a Citizen Science approach in your research.

The UCL Citizen Science website pages provide an introduction to citizen science at UCL including definitions, history, types and levels, projects and information about the Citizen Science Certificate.

We have also collated the following resources and training for you. If you have any questions or would like any further information, please contact us.

Training

Introducing citizen science

Citizen Science and Scientific Crowdsourcing: An Introduction: a short online course on the theory and practice of citizen science and scientific crowdsourcing.

UCL is partnered with FutureLearn and offers short online courses (please follow this guidance on how to access these courses as a UCL staff member or student via UCL single sign on):

• FutureLearn: Citizen Science Projects: How to Make a Difference: This course is for anyone interested in citizen science and citizen observatories and learning about how to design a citizen science project.
• FutureLearn: Community Based Research: Getting Started: Learn the skills you need to carry out research in your own community using the 'citizen science' approach of UCL's RELIEF Centre.

Public engagement

Citizen Science actively involves members of the public in research that generates new knowledge or understanding. Unlike traditional approaches, citizen science provides opportunity for greater public engagement and democratisation of research.

Self-paced training

Online public engagement training:

• Module 1: Introduction to public engagement
• Module 2: Public engagement as part of your research grant
• Module 3: Practical skills for public engagement
• Module 4: Evaluating the impact of engagement.

Instructor led

'Live' training, delivered remotely or face to face:

• Find your voice
• Train and engage (under review)
• Impact and engagement training

Working with Research Data

The Training and Support Resources for Research page includes many sources of training and guidance across UCL, delivered by different teams online and in person.

Training specifically for managing research data includes:

• UCL Library Research Data Management training and resources
• Training on writing data management plans (under Pillars of Open Science)

Research project management

UCL Organisational Development’s Research Staff Development Programme can be accessed via the MyLearning training catalogue and includes the following training:

• Introduction to Project Management: interactive online (3 part) course will introduce you to some of the essential skills and techniques of planning and managing projects.
• Managing Complex and Multiple Research Projects: online course designed for research staff working on complex and multiple projects. It will focus on tools, frameworks, mindsets, and skills required to successfully run multiple and complex projects in a research-intensive environment.
• Research project management best practice: develop your knowledge of project management frameworks and tools which you can apply directly to your research and wider projects.

There are similar courses available for doctoral researchers - see the Doctoral Skills Development Programme.

Managing participants

Recruiting, motivating, training and retaining participants is key to the success of your citizen science project.

There are a number of useful videos on managing participants on the UCL Extreme Citizen Science group YouTube Channel:

• Volunteer management, engagement and care: Introduction to community building
• Volunteer Engagement, Management and Care: Motivations recap

Resources

Useful readings

• European Citizen Science Association's 'Characteristics of citizen science' and Ten Principles of Citizen Science’: some of the key principles which as a community we believe underlie good practice in citizen science.
• Choosing and using citizen science: guidance to support people considering using a citizen science approach, especially (but not necessarily restricted to) monitoring biodiversity and the environment in the UK.
• UK Environmental Observation Framework: Guide to Citizen Science
• Citizenscience.gov toolkit: shows five basic process steps for planning, designing, and carrying out a crowdsourcing or citizen science project.
• OpenLearn from the open university: several Citizen Science resources, courses, articles, videos and more
• Eu-citizen.science Training Platform: resources and a platform for sharing citizen science projects, resources, tools and training
• UCL Press: publications on citizen science
• Citizen science at universities: trends, guidelines and recommendations: League of European Research Universities (LERU) report
• University of Southern Denmark (SDU) Library: citizen science resources
• Citizen Science Lab at the University of Leiden
• UCL Extreme Citizen Science group YouTube Channel videos

Blogs and news

• UCL Open Science and Scholarship: Open@UCLBlog Citizen Science 
• Extreme Citizen Science group blog
• UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) Blog Network: citizen science
• UCL Institute for Global Prosperity news: citizen science
• The great potential of citizen science. Blog post by Benedikt Fecher looking at the second spring of citizen science
• Citizen Science 101: How anyone can contribute to scientific research and development

Citizen science platforms and projects outside UCL

• Thousands of people across the country take part in the Natural History Museum’s crowdsourced science projects.
• On the SciStarter website you can join and contribute to science through thousands of amazing research projects and events. There are helpful resources and a shared space for project leaders to collaborate with people interested in working on research projects.
• With more than one million volunteers, Zooniverse is one of the biggest citizen science platforms in the UK. It also has resources, examples, blog posts, documents, Project Builder and more.
• If you’re interested in Biology, Ecology or Earth Science, check out the citizen science projects run by the National Geographic Society.
• Patientslikeme is an online platform where patients can share and learn from real-time, outcome-based health data and contribute to the scientific conversation surrounding thousands of diseases.
• The Globe at Night project aims to raise awareness about light pollution and its impacts on communities. You can report your night sky brightness observations daily.