24.02.2025How we strengthen Citizen Science in Switzerland

How can we strengthen Citizen Science in Switzerland? In the comprehensive report “Citizen Science in Switzerland: Taking Stock and Ways Into the Future”, the 'Swiss Expert Group for Citizen Science' issues recommendations for action for various stakeholders, including higher education institutions. We examine these recommendations and show what we at Citizen Science Zurich (CSZ) are already doing today and which recommendations we want to put into practice in the future.

Author: Olivia Höhener
Report: «Citizen Science in Switzerland: Taking Stock and Ways Into the Future»

Higher education institutions fulfill a dual role. On the one hand, they conduct research, and on the other, they train students and professionals. This puts them in an excellent position to promote Citizen Science. They can offer courses and training on Citizen Science and Public Engagement and make these concepts known and popular among students and researchers. On a structural level, they can promote Citizen Science by taking into account (and recognizing) the specific activities and requirements of Citizen Science by better aligning both the evaluation of research and existing employment structures. Examples of this include the creation of long-term positions, the diversification of academic job profiles for community management and outreach and the revision of research evaluation criteria.

In order to make the added value and impact of Citizen Science visible, to promote participatory projects with appropriate employment structures and long-term programs and to ensure that the special characteristics and added value of Citizen Science are taken into account when evaluating research, the Expert Group on Citizen Science recommends that higher education institutions implement six measures. The following three are particularly relevant to us and our activities:

1. Establish Citizen Science on a strategic level, for example as its own organisational unit. CSZ is highlighted here as a lighthouse example. Thanks to the commitment of the University of Zurich (UZH) and ETH Zurich (ETH) as well as generous funding from the Mercator Foundation Switzerland, we are able to support researchers and practitioners in the planning and implementation of Citizen Science projects and to help shape and promote the Citizen Science community in Switzerland and internationally. The long-term commitment of the UZH and the Faculty of  Arts and Social Sciences of the UZH allows us to continue doing this in the coming years – a big thank you at this point!
2. Create long-term positions, for example for experts in participation or (local) community involvement. Despite UZH's long-term commitment, our ability to create long-term positions is limited for the time being. Researchers and practitioners who would like support in the planning, implementation and moderation of participatory formats or support in building and involving communities must factor this support into their project budgets at an early stage. This results in a planning uncertainty for our office.
3. Create and coordinate training opportunities so that Citizen Science practitioners can name outcomes and impact. We have been offering training on impact-oriented project planning as part of our range of courses for several years and cooperate with colleagues from the ZHAW. This training content is also an integral part of our Citizen Science School and the CAS  in Citizen Science and Public Engagement, which we will be offering for the first time in 2025.

In addition to the funding of long-term positions, the status report sees a particular need for funding for projects that test participatory and innovative concepts and approaches. These must be more open-ended due to the active involvement of non-academic people and can therefore be less straightforward or even fail. Providing “seed money” is particularly recommended – a small to medium amount of initial funding that can lay the foundation for the development of longer-term partnerships and larger follow-up projects. CSZ has also been doing pioneering work in this area since 2019: the current Seed Grant Call is already the seventh and to date, we have been able to fund 39 projects with a total contribution of CHF 1,420,000.

The majority of these funds went to young researchers – our contribution to the next generation of researchers! Over the past 12 months, we have been able to present the concept of our “Seed Grants” not only to the swissfoundations research working group, but also to the OECD.

In 2025 and 2026, in addition to supporting the funded projects, we want to focus more on impact measurement in order to be able to make a well-founded statement on the impact of our Seed Grants and the funded projects.

The report identifies students and academics from all disciplines as well as “citizen science practitioners” and citizens as target groups for education and training. In addition to a cross-disciplinary and cross-departmental approach, the Expert Group for Citizen Science also advocates the inclusion of trainers from outside of academia. Both the cross-disciplinary approach and the diversity of trainers are approaches that we at CSZ have been implementing for some time:

• As part of the School for Transdisciplinary StudiesSTS, we have been offering students an introductory seminar in Citizen Science since 2021. With the generous support of the Wissenschaftsverbunds Vierländerregion Bodensee, we are conducting a teaching project in the current spring semester together with the University of Konstanz, in which students even develop and implement their own Citizen Science projects. We will be reporting on the challenges and lessons learned in transdisciplinary and participatory teaching formats at the upcoming CitSci Helvetia in Lausanne.
• The new CAS  in Citizen Science and Public Engagement, which we will be offering for the first time in fall 2025, involves much more than “just” science communication: with a modular structure, it is dedicated to topics such as impact orientation and measurement, fundraising, communication, community management, participatory methods for involving different target groups and quality assurance during the course of the project. We involve our entire network of trainers in its implementation. This includes people from the field and citizens who have taken part in Citizen Science projects.

Together with the ColLaboratoire of the University of Lausanne, we want to connect people who teach Citizen Science or other participatory approaches at Swiss higher education institutions. The aim for 2025 is to set up a national working group in order to exploit synergies and conserve the resources of individual teachers.

Courses on offer for citizens are also important to us. In the past, however, we have not been as successful as we would have liked: Courses often only took place with a small number of participants or had to be canceled altogether due to a lack of registrations. Since last year, we have had a great e-learning course that allows you to discover Citizen Science and learn about project examples. This can be adapted for Citizen Science projects to include project-related training content. In this way, we hope to increase our reach!

In addition to the adaptation of criteria for the evaluation of research in order to increase the recognition of Citizen Science activities by researchers, the status report lists the following two measures as expedient:

• Target group-oriented communication and an associated training program
• The coordination of activities by “Citizen Science Ambassadors” at higher education institutions, who form the local interface between the public, researchers and external stakeholders in the field of Citizen Science

In addition to our trainings, in which communication is an integral part, we provide a self-developed template, the “Impact Narrative”. Tested at international Citizen Science conferences, it makes it easier to formulate the impact achieved in a way that is appropriate for the target group and helps project leaders to organize all the relevant information and focus on the aspects that are most important for the target group. Now that the first Seed Grant projects have also used the template, our conclusion is: we are delighted with the results!

With the “Citizen Science Connected” project, we are taking up the “Ambassador” idea initiated by the expert group. Our goal: A long-term network of so-called “Citizen Science Points of Contact” at universities and universities of applied sciences that are visible within their organizations and approachable  for researchers, external stakeholders and the public with questions about Citizen Science.

Our activities within the project focus on identifying relevant people at universities and universities of applied sciences who are already involved or interested in the field of Citizen Science, recruiting them for the network and working together with them to co-develop a roadmap for a long-term national network. In addition to information exchange and peer learning, we offer the new “Points of Contact” various opportunities to try out participatory formats themselves and to reflect on their implementation in their respective local contexts. In addition to co-creating a roadmap, it is our goal to co-develop an idea for a nationwide Citizen Science project in the field of sustainability. We are most grateful that we are receiving funding from swissuniversities (program “Strengthening the sustainability culture at Swiss universities”) to set up this national network. This will enable us to carry out the project together with colleagues from Bioscope and the SDG Solution Space at the University of Geneva.

Higher education institutions also benefit from the promotion of Citizen Science. In addition to the existing missions of teaching and research, the so-called third mission is an obligation to contribute the findings from research and teaching to society and the economy. Citizen science and other participatory approaches play an important role in this. Universities are therefore increasingly focusing on closer cooperation with society. They also want to align their research and teaching with the needs of society and promote the transfer of knowledge in order to make research findings accessible to a wider audience. Many people now realise that this requires more than just science communication. However, they may not yet realise that you also have to invest in participation that benefits everyone involved. 

We are already implementing some of the recommended measures - in some cases for several years. We are therefore proud of what we have achieved so far! But we don't want to rest on our laurels. We want to continue to support researchers and people involved in Citizen Science in the planning and implementation of their projects and promote collaboration that is beneficial for science and society. And contribute to Citizen Science being recognised in Switzerland in the way it deserves.