About Us

Citizen Science Zurich is a joint initiative of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, supported by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland.

We strive for an open, diverse and inclusive science, where research is done with the public and for the public, and where Citizen Science is accepted as a standard/ general research approach.

Our mission is to inspire and support people to engage in different forms of participatory research. We aim to increase participation of citizens in academia and want to enable an effective collaboration between science and society.

In order to achieve this,

• we promote the active participation of citizens in research, tackling questions across all academic disciplines, from climate change to human health.
• we provide the resources, expertise, and technical know-how to develop, set up, and run Citizen Science projects.
• we offer various trainings to promote the skills necessary for doing Citizen Science.
• we help all practitioners to maintain the highest standards of excellence in research methodology, including research ethics, data collection, analysis, and dissemination.
• we provide an environment that fosters and facilitates cooperation and communication between citizen scientists and academic scientists.
• we encourage projects to contribute to the global effort toward sustainable development, by creating actionable knowledge and data that can help tackle the UN SDGs at the local, regional, and global level.

Our activities reflect our core values:

• Participation: Citizen Science Zurich prioritizes projects with an active and meaningful participation of citizen scientists in the different phases of the scientific research project, from funding allocation, topic selection, and research design, to execution, interpretation, and dissemination of results.
• Excellence: Citizen Science Zurich develops and implements projects that reflect the highest standards possible in terms of scientific rigor, data security, and research ethics.
• Openness: Citizen Science Zurich adheres to the principles of open science (open access to data and publications) and operates in a fully transparent manner, ensuring public benefits from our work.

Our services are available for anybody interested in

• creating a participatory Citizen Science project;
• participating in a Citizen Science project;
• learning about participatory Citizen Science;
• expanding their skill set or
• growing their network and exchanging with peers,

including citizens and researchers from UZH, ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, and beyond.

Designing, planning, and implementing Citizen Science projects may be challenging, especially when approaching the methodology for the first time. We are there to help with theoretical, practical, and ethical guidelines and standards. With our Seed Grants, we also support projects at an early stage with small funding.

Grants & Services

Citizen Science Zurich offers a set of tools that make it easy to create new Citizen Science projects or contribute to existing ones:

The CS Project Builder is a web platform that allows you to create digital data analysis projects with a simple step-by-step process. Participants will be able to perform complex data classification tasks such as image recognition, tagging, mapping, transcription of digitized text, etc.

The CS logger is a web/mobile platform that allows you to create digital data collection projects in the form of smartphone Apps. These Apps enable participants to collect data in the form of geo-located images, survey answers, and other types of media, such as video and sound.

Our tools are developed as open source software (see our GitHub repository), in full cooperation with the department S3IT (Service and Support for Science IT) of the University of Zurich.

Digital Tools

We encourage everyone involved in Citizen Science to expand their skills and acquire competencies for Citizen Science. We offer a variety of trainings for students, researchers, citizens and professionals such as staff of museums, archives, libraries or science centers. Our trainings range from an introduction to Citizen Science to the development of specific skills necessary for planning, conducting and evaluating participatory Citizen Science projects.

We are also happy to support your organization or your project with customized training. Reach out to us and tell us what you need!

Trainings

We are part of a growing Citizen Science community that extends beyond Zurich. Our activities revolve around our members, project partners, and anyone who joins us. They include online and offline interactions as well as local events. With an open, creative and interdisciplinary approach, we aim to foster a productive environment for Citizen Science.

We encourage practitioners to share knowledge, expertise and experiences, and join forces across research groups, institutions, and research domains. We work in collaboration with all major national and international Citizen Science networks, and are keen to build bridges between practitioners in Switzerland and beyond.

We are always happy to brainstorm and discuss how we can change the world with Citizen Science!

Community

The Citizen Science Center (formally "Competence Center - Citizen Science", CC-CS) was established in 2017 by the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich. In 2018, the Participatory Science Academy was established thanks to the Mercator Foundation Switzerland. The Center and the Academy have supported a wide range of Citizen Science forms and practices in all scientific disciplines.

As of 2023, the two units have joined forces and merged into Citizen Science Zurich, to better support and promote participatory Citizen Science in Zurich and beyond.