"Recruitment of Citizen Scientists and other relevant stakeholders": Output Paper of the StepChange Mutual Learning Exercise

The consortium of Step Change presented and discussed the main lessons learned during the work on its “Citizen Science Initiatives” (CSIs) in relation to the “Recruitment of Citizen Scientists and other relevant stakeholders” together with external experts Giovanni Maccani representing WeCount project, Rosa Arias representing D-NOSES and NEWSERA projects and Alex Amo representing COS4CLOUD project. The output paper was prepared by the ZSI team (Carmen Siller, ilse Marschalek, Elke Dall, Elisabeth Unterfrauner) with inputs from all consortium partners.Below some experiences, tested solutions and results are outlined in several key lessons learned related to the following broadly identified challenges:

1.      Using the terminology of “citizen science”

2.      Establishing and setting recruitment targets - and publishing about them

3.      Identifying, getting access to and meeting citizens willing to get involved

4.      Reaching out to CSs via intermediaries

5.      Time planning and dealing with delays

6.      Tailoring communication to different target groups

7.      Providing information material to the potential citizen scientists

8.      Providing incentives and managing expectations

While this exercise contributes to the exchange of experiences and mutual learning among the CSIs, we also hope to enable others to learn from our conclusions.