Developing metrics and instruments to evaluate the impacts of citizen science on society, governance, the economy, the environment, and science

1. Developing metrics and instruments
to evaluate the impacts of citizen
science on society, governance, the
economy, the environment, and
science
Luigi Ceccaroni, Uta Wehn, Steven Loiselle,
Stephen Parkinson, Hannah Joyce, Mark
Naura, Martin Janes, Mohammad
Gharesifard, Sasha Woods and James Sprinks
December 2020
online

2. Project partners
Earthwatch Europe (UK)
Coordinator
IHE Delft - IHE DELFT
Institute for Water Education
(Netherlands)
AAWA - Alto Adriatico Water
Authority (Italy)
GEO - GEONARDO
Environmental Technologies
LTD (Hungary)
RRC - The River Restoration
Centre (UK)
GeoEcoMar - Institutul
National de Cercetare-
Dezvoltare Pentru Geologie si
Geoecologie Marina (Romania)
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3. Objectives
• To measure the impact of citizen science
• To co-design hands-on, citizen-science
activities for maximum impact
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4. Co-design of hands-on citizen-science
Carasuhat Wetlands, Romania Alfreton Brook, UK
Marzenego River, Italy Creek Rákos, Hungary
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5. Analysis of the impact of citizen science
on five domains
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society governance
the
economy
the environment
science

6. What are we considering to measure
citizen science impact?
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• Input of practitioners and researchers from citizen
science and NBSs
• Interviews with 10 citizen-science project coordinators
• Results of other projects: in-depth analysis of 20
reference projects for impact-assessment
methodologies, tools and indicators
• Review of 9 general impact-assessment frameworks, 80
citizen-science--specific impact-assessment frameworks
and empirical insights
• The SDGs
• The ECSA characteristics of citizen science

7. The MICS impact ontology
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• Data and metadata
collected, produced
and managed by the
project will be
informed by a
common and
interoperable
conceptual model
(the MICS ontology).
• The ontology also
links the impact of a
citizen-science project
with the UN's SDGs.

8. Platform prototype: project space
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• The project space:
• Social-media--feel
in terms of design
and visualisation
• Intuitive user-
experience when
creating a
personalised page
for each different
citizen-science
project

9. Platform prototype: interface
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• Impact assessment interface:
• The assessment of impact is a unique design challenge
• Issues considered: fatigue, lack of knowledge, gamification

10. Platform prototype: interface
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• Impact assessment interface:
• How do you ask a user 200 questions about indicators?
• How do you design an algorithm with 200 features?

11. Platform prototype: impact assessment
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12. Platform prototype: impact assessment
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• EU funding for citizen science per country

13. What you can do
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• Check [mics.tools] in the second half of 2021 to use the
impact-assessment tools
• Be a beta tester and help us shape those tools in a way
that reflects your needs*
• Think about impact at each step of your project design
and execution
* Write an email to Parky (sparkinson@earthwatch.org.uk) to
become a beta tester.

14. MICS: Developing metrics and instruments to evaluate citizen
science impacts on the environment and society
Call: Horizon 2020 - SwafS-2018-2020 - Science with and for
Society
Topic: SwafS-15-2018-2019 - Exploring and supporting citizen
science
Type of action: Research and Innovation Action (RIA)
Grant Agreement number: 824711
Duration: 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2021
Total budget: € 1,944,428
Overview
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15. Website: mics.tools
Twitter: @MICSproject
Facebook: MICS Project
LinkedIn: MICS Project
Contacts
• Luigi Ceccaroni
Scientific coordinator
lceccaroni@earthwatch.org.uk
• Katrin Nolland
Project manager
knolland@earthwatch.org.uk
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020
research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 824711.