Citizen science worldwide

Citizen Science in Austria

Citizen science has been carried out in many parts of the world for some time now and since the mid-2010s, citizen science initiatives have become increasingly connected on a national and international scale. 

Citizen Science has been practised in Austria for longer than the term Citizen Science has been used. In general, it can be assumed that many citizen science projects have been and are being carried out in Austria, but that they have been and sometimes still are referred to differently. Although citizen science as a term is now well established, pseudonyms for citizen science projects are still used, among others, Bürgerwissenschaften (literally “citizen science”), Freiwilligenforschung (“volunteer research”), Volkszählungen (“population census”) or Laienwissenschaften (“laypersons’ science”).

Since 2013, the goal of the working group for citizen science at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, has been to find citizen science actors in Austria, connect them and to facilitate the dialogue between science and society. The platform Österreich forscht (www.citizen-science.at) has been online since 2014. On this website, numerous different institutions appear and work intensively together to connect citizen science actors in Austria and internationally, to further promote the quality of citizen science and to further develop the method.

In summer 2017 the Citizen Science Network Austria (CSNA) was created, which now acts as the supporting body of the Österreich forscht platform and whose Memorandum of Understanding has already been signed by numerous institutions.

The following years were characterised by a decision made by the then newly elected Rectorate of BOKU University in 2018. From the beginning of 2019, the ‘Citizen Science Network Austria’ and the associated ‘Österreich forscht’ platform were to be given a long-term perspective. It was decided to make the temporary positions that had existed since 2017, permanent and to hire Daniel Dörler and Florian Heigl as Senior Scientists for Citizen Science and to provide a budget for activities relating to Österreich forscht and the Citizen Science Network Austria. This made the ‘Österreich forscht’ platform and the ‘Citizen Science Network Austria’ probably the first citizen science initiatives in Europe to be able to plan for the long term. From this point onwards, it was possible to develop multi-year projects and programmes in order to anchor citizen science in Austria in the long term.

A detailed history of the development of Österreich forscht can be found in the book ‘Populäres Wissen - Von der Laienforschung des 19. Jahrhunderts zur heutigen Citizen Science - eine Annäherung’.

On Österreich forscht you will find all citizen science projects in Austria that meet the quality criteria for citizen science projects on Österreich forscht. You will also find the latest information on the annual Austrian Citizen Science Conference organised by the platform. In the Österreich forscht blog, you will be kept up to date by the Austrian citizen science community on current developments on the topic of citizen science in Austria and the world. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn. Since March 2022, the monthly citizen science podcast ‘Wissen macht Leute’ has been published, in which project managers and citizen scientists are interviewed and insights are provided behind the scenes of projects and events.

In addition to the Citizen Science Network Austria, Austria also has the Center for Citizen Science, which was established in 2015 by the Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research with the Österreichischen Austauschdienst and serves as an information and service point for researchers, citizens and experts from various fields. Furthermore, the Centre acts as a programme management agency, e.g. for the funding initiative Sparkling Science or the Citizen Science Award. You can find more information about the centre on their website.

Furthermore, some universities have citizen science coordination or contact points: University of Innsbruck, University of Salzburg, University of Vienna, BOKU University.

Citizen Science international

On an international scale, citizen science is very popular and has a long tradition in English-speaking areas. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is commonly mentioned as the oldest citizen science project.

• Germany: A comprehensive information site on citizen science, with projects and events in Germany can be found at mit:forschen. In addition, there is a citizen science coordination office at the University of Münster, which is intensively involved in Citizen Science.
• Switzerland: Switzerland also has its own platform for citizen science projects: Schweiz forscht. This platform, operated by the foundation Science et cité, presents projects from a wide range of fields and provides information on citizen science in Switzerland. In addition, there is also the Citizen Science Center Zurich of ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, which takes care of citizen science issues of these two universities.
• Benelux: Iedereen Wetenschapper is a citizen science platform from Belgium that mainly maps and networks Flemish projects and is also active in the Netherlands. Its sister platform Scivil also covers the Flemish citizen science community.
• Denmark: Citizen Science Netværket is a Danish network that also maps Danish projects and links actors on its website.
• Sweden: Vetenskap & Allmänhet is an independent Swedish non-profit organisation working to promote dialogue and openness between scientists and the public.
• Italy: In Italy, Citizen Science Italia was founded in 2023. Citizen Science Italia is based at the Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma.
• Czech Republic: In the Czech Republic, the national Citizen Science platform is anchored at the University of Brno.
• Slovenia: Slovenia also has a Citizen Science Platform, which provides general information on Citizen Science and many projects to participate in.
• USA: If you are looking for projects in the USA, you can use scistarter. On this platform you will not only find an extensive selection of projects, but also a blog from the U.S.A. on news about citizen science. citsci.org offers tools to develop a project yourself and also lists many citizen science projects to participate in.

In addition to these initiatives, there are still many more that currently exist. If you would like to know more, you can find more information on the website for the Citizen Science Networks working group of the European Citizen Science Association, in which many of these networks are represented. 

However, it is not only projects that are organised on an international scale, but associations and networks are also formed with a goal to professionalising citizen science and strengthening national cooperation. In Europe, this is the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA), in the US it is the Citizen Science Association (CSA) and Australia has the Citizen Science Network Australia (CSNA).

A worldwide initiative is also currently in development. The Citizen Science Global Partnership is trying to connect all major actors in citizen science worldwide.