The Citizen Science Starter Kit was created by members of the imec-SMIT research group and the Citizen Science Contact Point at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. This work was developed as a deliverable for the EUTOPIA TRAIN project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework program under grant agreement No 101017419 EUROPIA-TRAIN. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Citizen Science starter kit provides information to researchers who are new to citizen science. It helps you to initiate or support a citizen science research (project), regardless of the scientific discipline. It is a how-to guide for beginners, a foundation course, with the most essential information to get started.
- Module 1 – Start to learn about citizen science. This first module reflects upon the different terms and characteristics used to describe citizen science. The benefits of citizen science research are listed, and the diversity of the field is illustrated with case studies in all scientific branches and disciplines.
- Module 2 – Determine if citizen science is right for your research. Before you initiate a citizen science project, you should reflect on whether it is suitable for your research. This module provides some reflective questions as well as decision frameworks to figure out the suitability of a citizen science approach.
- Module 3 – Crucial design factors for successful citizen science. This module presents crucial design factors for planning and developing your citizen science research (project).
- Module 4 – Getting started with citizen science. This interactive module helps you to design your citizen science research (project). Templates, guidelines and checklists are provided.
For more information, please contact us via citizenscience@vub.be
