Rethinking impact assessment in citizen science

Abstract

Why are people still struggling with effectively demonstrating the wide and diverse impact of their citizen science activities? After many years of developing impact assessment frameworks, models, and guidelines it seems that capturing the manifold effects of citizen science on individuals, communities and our society at large is still a challenge. Considering the richness and diversity of participatory research in citizen science that often spans across disciplines and offers engagement at various levels it is obvious that there is no one-model-fits-all approach for impact assessment. However, it is important to provide evidence for the achievements, also in the longer term, from the project actors perspectives and from the funders view. The focus session during the ECSA2024 conference aimed to have a close look at the current challenges citizen science actors are facing when planning and conducting their impact assessment. To dive deep into the problem and discuss user-oriented solutions we applied a design thinking method. The full day session revealed several challenges that were clustered around 5 topics, namely: timing, methodology, stakeholders, planning, and ethics. The 5 personas created around those challenges gave deeper insights into the issues and creative solutions, including platforms, prizes and spaces for more exchange on impact assessment were prototyped. Many participants expressed their interest in joining an ECSA working group on impact assessment in citizen science to keep working on the topic.

Keywords

• impact assessment
• evaluation
• design thinking